LEED 2012 Changes – Will Buildings Get Better or Will Lawyers Get Richer?
Green buildings are becoming, by codification, the law of the land. For some firms, this will just mean business as usual. For other firms, this change will be cataclysmic.
What will this mean? Green rating criteria will become codified by model codes. On the surface this sounds like a very good thing — mandating better performing, more energy efficient buildings and it certainly has many redeeming aspects.
Here’s the downside:
• Lack of Experience Will Increase design and construction deficiencies – Many of the optional aspects of the current USGBC LEED® guidelines will now be mandatory for designers and contractors. This means that, even if your designer or contractor doesn’t fully understand the key technical issues (e.g., envelope air barriers), they will still be required to use them. • Standard of Care Will Be Elevated – These new code requirements will automatically raise the required standard of care for the design and construction industry. This will increase the risk profile of their projects and may (at least initially) trigger some exclusion clauses in their current insurance policies. What are now considered “best practices” will soon be considered the minimum standard of care.
• Regional Issues Not Addressed – The new standard mandates national green building requirements throughout the country with very little regard of the unique regions of the country where certain concepts may not be appropriate. This is almost always a problem when national standards are uniformly imposed on climates with unique requirements (e.g., hot and humid, very cold, or very rainy climates). The inevitable result is that everyone will quickly morph into a green practitioner and the true marketplace differentiators (those with experience and unique technical expertise) will become difficult to discern.
While codes can dictate that the industry follows certain standards, it cannot mandate that they get correctly implemented — with an increase in design and construction deficiencies and lawsuits being the inevitable result.
