Sunday, September 28, 2008

McLennan Mentions LEED?...

One thing I found contradictory in McLennan's discussion in his preface is the fact that he mentions LEED as helping the to transform the building marketplace... I would agree that, in some respects, LEED at least makes more designers and builders aware of more environmentally-friendly systems; however, in our LEED-certified buildings at work, we have been told that we don't have to worry about anything except what will affect the building's occupants. For example, I was concerned about the VOCs in the primer that we were using on the architectural exposed steel...and was told by the LEED consultant that I did not need to worry about primers because they were applied in the shop and not in the field. What?!? McLennan's whole premise is the holistic view of the entire system, including the entire life cycle of all materials and their impact; LEED, at least the version that gets passed around in the working community, doesn't emobdy that approach. You can't even get digital copies of the myriad of LEED pamphlets from their website -- you have to order paper copies...

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