WRITTEN BY | NATHAN M. GILLETTE, AIA, LEED AP, CEM
Green-building Incentives Promote Renovation and Redevelopment in a Down Economy
ecently USA Today published an analysis of the Washington, D.C.- based U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system. (Read the article at usat.ly/TAcPjL.) When it
was published, the article’s criticisms sent a shockwave through the green-building community. If the author’s intention was to get people talking about the subject, mis- sion accomplished. But was the article fair and on-track? The USA Today article is broken into a
two-part disparagement about buildings that have been LEED certified. The first part is an age-old criticism of it being too easy to achieve a LEED certification, focusing on sev- eral of the “low-hanging fruit” credits that have been slammed for many years. (To read my thoughts about these criticisms, see “Low-hanging Fruit,” on retrofit’s website, retrofitmagazine.com/low-hanging-fruit.) The second part of USA Today’s article questioned the use of LEED with economic- development incentives. The particular proj-