An education in LEED’s irony

I feel very fortunate that the USGBC is very active where I live. I am also fortunate to have a lot of LEED commercial buildings popping up around too. Our local USGBC group arranged a hard hat tour of a gold rated building under construction in downtown. It is being built by a very wealthy NGO that has deep pockets and a big heart. A week before the tour they made a ‘slight’ change in plans and decided that we would not be allowed inside. A best guess is for safety reasons.

Well a lot of folks showed up none the less with hard hat in hand. We ended up on the other side of the street sweating and watching brick being laid as one of the contractors describe some LEED points that the building achieved. One question asked was how the innovation points were earned. The best answer I heard was that they intended to put an “education” center in the building for everyone to learn how it was put together and how the building works. OK, I sniff an irony.

If you haven’t smelled it yet don’t worry because it took me a few hours to connect the dots. After the ‘tour’ we went back to a contractor's office nearby and have a beer together. Very nicely done. I asked an organizer of the ‘tour’ if it was the lawyers who got sketchy. He said it was the building owner who denied access to our educational event. No further details.

Ok, now the irony has the smell of Limburger. And it was a hot day too. Limburger cheese on a hot day. A nice cooled beer helped, but please…

I would kindly request the USGBC revoke the education point if a building is not accessible to third parties during construction. A few dozen building professionals were denied the essential opportunity to see firsthand LEED construction but the building still gets its innovation point. Education in the building profession is fundamental for expanding green building’s role. If you are going to claim the LEED system on your project then you should allow the local USGBC to use that project as an educational platform.