Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED), a program promulgated by the US Green Building Council, is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using specific “green” strategies.
In practice, it s intended to improve performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.
But the cost of seeking certification, which ranges from $50,000 to $80,000 per building, has cash-strapped cities and counties passing on the chance to display LEED plaques on their buildings.
A case in point is St. Louis Park, a small Midwestern city in the US state of Minnesota.
According to an article appearing in the Minneapolis (Minn.) Star-Tribune, the city recently built two new fire stations replete with high-efficiency boilers, energy-saving windows, lights that switch off when rooms are idle and state-of-the-art handling of storm water – all elements that contribute to meeting the LEED standard.
But city officials won't take the ultimate step of seeking LEED certification for its fire stations. They said it costs too much.
"It's like being a Minnesota Star City; it doesn't mean much," St. Louis Park Mayor Jeff Jacobs told the newspaper. "We've done a lot of the things that LEED certification does, but we don't have to pay the fees."
Star Tribune reporter Mary Jane Smetanka went on to report that at least three other Minnesota municipalities that took pains to use sustainable designs and building materials have also chosen to forgo LEED certification for new libraries and other buildings, despite the cachet such certification provides.
Said, one city official, "Why spend [all that money] to get a plaque on the wall saying this is a green building?"
No one knows how many cities and counties across the US have passed on LEED certification as their finances have grown tight. According to the US Green Building Council, the number of applications it receives for public projects continues to rise.
LEED certification is expensive because extensive documentation is required to track each step of a project, and its extensive reliance on-site evaluation.
And the Star-Tribune found that some cities are still willing to pay the price, among them, Minneapolis itself.
The city recently unveiled a public works building project that has earned gold status -- the second-highest LEED level – and the city hopes it will ultimately achieve platinum recognition, the highest award.
The city’s highest-profile LEED-certified project in Minnesota is Target Field, home to Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins franchise. The 40,000 seat facility was awarded LEED Silver Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council, only the second LEED-certified professional sports stadium in the United States, after Nationals Park in Washington, DC.
For additional information:
