Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or Greenwashing?

Henry Gifford the New Yorkers “Boiler Man” and an energy consultant in New York City is a dissenting voice for measuring building efficiency based on the US Green Building Council’s LEED rating system. In his eye opening paper, “A Better Way to Rate Green Buildings,” Gifford asserts that appearance of energy efficiency is the focal point of the LEED system not actually accomplishing energy savings as the USGBC would have us believe.
Gifford states that, “There is only one realistic way to
rate the energy efficiency of a building: by
how much energy it actually uses after it is
occupied. For any green building rating
system to be truly effective it must require
public scrutiny of utility bills for all rated
buildings, not just a few selected examples.”
Gifford’s point hit homes on August 30, 2009, when the New York Times published a piece in the Environment section on these green labeled buildings. It appears that the can of worms has been opened and the USGBC is scrambling to address it.