Green Building

Green Building Rating Systems

The building and construction industry is a major market of the business of chemistry. While product innovations, market forces, and building codes affect product purchases, the industry has witnessed the growing influence of “green” building programs and laws in the last 10 years. Although the definition of “green” varies widely, generally green building seeks to increase the efficiency of energy, water and materials use in buildings and to reduce their environmental and human health impacts. For example, plastics can help conserve resources, are durable and can make buildings more energy efficient. Despite these benefits, some aspects of green building programs present some major challenges for plastic products.

For the reasons just mentioned, plastic products such as insulation, sealants, housewrap, pipe, vinyl windows and doors can help contribute significantly to the greening of buildings. Many companies are marketing their products to capture this growth trend. Because they all want to be “green”, many federal agencies, state governments and municipalities have adopted incentives or regulations to promote green building, and many alliances, councils and activist groups are forming to advance green building practices.

In early 2000, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a 501 (c)(6) organization (a group funded by member dues) of architects and designers aggressively moved to fill a vacuum by providing their definition of “green building”. Through the promotion of their eco-label known as the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system, the USGBC quickly became a leading national “authority” on green building for architects and designers. Many legislators and decision makers do not realize that LEED is a private branded and marketed product that must be paid for and licensed for use. Many organizations, representing a variety of building materials, have several concerns with USGBC and the approach the LEED brand takes to green building: (1) LEED is a prescriptive check-list rating system rather than a performance based, whole building system. For example, LEED prescribes what types of materials to use rather than setting performance goals to be achieved using whatever materials perform best. So by design, only the top 25% of buildings and materials (“Top” as defined by USGBC) will receive LEED accreditation. (2) LEED is biased against synthetic materials e.g. LEED gives credit for renewable resource based materials and does not give credit for durability. (3) USGBC has not used a consensus-based approach in defining and revising LEED. In the past and during the creation of LEED, the USGBC’s policymaking process was not open to all stakeholders. Recently USGBC has decided to allow trade associations to join USGBC. (4) Like many new products, LEED has weaknesses, is incomplete and is still evolving. Nevertheless, recently, LEED has been the only green building rating system available to legislators. (5) Because LEED is not informed by life cycle analysis (LCA) which takes into account the cradle to grave aspects of materials and buildings, a building can earn enough points to be LEED certified, but still be an average or poor performer in basic "green" elements. For example, using renewable materials doesn’t necessarily address maintenance, durability, and energy efficiency over the life of a building.

Other “green building” tools are now emerging in the market place, such as the Green Globes environmental assessment and rating system for the commercial sector and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Model Green Home Building Guidelines for residential construction. Green Globes is a product of the Green Building Initiative (GBI), whose mission is to “promote practical green building approaches to energy efficient and environmentally sustainable building practices commonly referred to as green building. GBI is focused on ensuring the availability of credible and practical green building approaches within the residential and commercial construction industries.” Green Globes is more performance based, material neutral, more affordable, and is “life-cycle” oriented. Furthermore, GBI has become an accredited organization by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and efforts are underway to take Green Globes through the ANSI process. This means that all stakeholders will be able to participate, provide input and feedback making the end result more informed, balanced, and fair.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) supports the construction of buildings that save energy, use materials that promote resource conservation and offer employees a safe and healthy working environment. Building green is a complex undertaking that requires a fair, open, and science-based evaluation process that allows all materials and products to compete on a level playing field. Many "green building" tools are available to architects, policymakers and others. These tools combine life-cycle costs and performance assessment data to discern environmental and economic tradeoffs, allow for a fair comparison of products and rely on standards developed by consensus-based groups such as ANSI, the International Standards Organization (ISO) and ASTM International (originally known as the American Society for Testing and Materials).

ACC is opposed to codifying only one specific green building rating system (i.e. LEED) because it would tie the hands of policymakers unnecessarily and prohibits the flexibility needed to make decisions based on local needs and ever-changing fiscal priorities. Furthermore, specific reference to only the LEED brand and checklist unfairly promotes one green building eco-label at the expense of other, perhaps more appropriate tools that could be available to meet local needs.

For more information on building “green”, visit www.GreenBuildingSolutions.org.

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