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National
USGBC Advised to Make Location Part of LEED Certification to Avoid ''Green Sprawl''
Some planned big-box stores or bank branches may meet the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) eco-friendly standards, win ''green'' certification under its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for New Construction (LEED-NC) rating system and receive related tax breaks, but if they are built in car-dependent strip malls or on urban fringes, writes Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel associate Shari Shapiro, J.D., in a Greener Buildings News column, they are just ''green sprawl,'' an apt term other smart growth advocates consider equally applicable to many new schools.
''Green sprawl,'' Dr Shapiro points out, ''presents several problems: it justifies the continued development on the periphery, perpetuates reliance on overburdened infrastructure and misses the opportunity to build in a sustainable manner.''
To discourage green sprawl, she advises at least two changes. The USGBC should require a sustainable location -- in dense mixed-use surroundings and near transit lines -- to certify a new big-box, bank or any other building as ''green;'' and governments should tie their green incentives to ''an assessment of the site's sustainability and the project's impact on the infrastructure.''
Right now, she observes, the USGBC assigns a project only two out of the possible 69 points for location on a brownfield (SS Credit 3) and in a dense context (SS Credit 2), which is not enough to help reverse the ingrained habit of building away from community centers.
Citing the U.S. Census Bureau estimate of more than $1.17 billion in construction expenses last June, she stresses, ''Each dollar invested in a building located in an unsustainable context is a dollar that could have been used to develop a building on a brownfield site or near public transit.''
As to the often raised question, ''Isn't somewhat green better than not green at all?'' Dr Shapiro is adamant.
''If the ultimate goal is to reduce energy and water usage at the level of individual buildings, then it does not matter what the context looks like,'' she writes. ''But context matters if the goal is to transform the built environment in order to have a dramatic impact on the environment. We should not sacrifice the forest to save a few trees.''
See also http://greenlaw.blogspot.com and www.usgbc.org/LEED. -- Greener Buildings News 9/6/2007
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