Greenwashing Construction: LEED Certification Helps Avoid 'Building Makeovers'

By Auden Schendler

If you've seen the TV show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," where gay men provide makeovers for hopelessly style-deficient bachelors, then you can understand greenwashing in the construction industry.

A makeover gives you a new look on the same person. Low cost. No need for plastic surgery. Greenwashing gives you a new image for the same building, without the need for structural changes.

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Greenwashing

Officially, greenwashing is disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image. The Web site corpwatch.com calls it "the phenomenon of socially and environmentally destructive corporations attempting to preserve and expand their markets by posing as friends of the environment. it is environmental whitewash. Hogwash."

Greenwashing - as depicted in ads where environmentally negligent companies portray themselves through pictures of lush forests and furry animals - has also been described as "eco-porn."

Here's an example. The new piece of commercial real estate that moved into your neighborhood in the face of protests is finally done. It's a "green" building, according to developers. They cite numerous environmentally responsible features - recycled wood products, entirely recycled steel studs, super-efficient toilets and showerheads, a smoking ban to protect indoor air quality and efficient fluorescent lighting in the hallways.

But a closer examination of the contractor's measures, all of which are accurately portrayed, puts the lie to the "green" claims. Many wood products - such as OSB board, TGI beams and particleboard cabinets - are recycled. You can't get anything with greater environmental impact without paying a premium. Structural steel is all made from recycled scrap metal. 1.6 gal.-per-flush toilets and 2.5 gal.-per-minute showerheads have been required by law since the Federal Energy Policy Act of 1992.

The fluorescent lights in the hallway are efficient but only compared to incandescent bulbs. Second generation T8 bulbs are even more efficient, but the older technology is slightly cheaper. Smoking happens to be banned in commercial spaces anyway. If the community believes that structure is a green building, it has just bought the developer a free lunch.

Ecoporn in Building

Since real green development is a responsible way to smooth local government approvals, appease the public and improve corporate perception, less ethical builders see greenwashing as a cheap way to get at these same benefits.

After all, if you appear to be a responsible corporate citizen, people want you to work in their community. There's also free press to be had from perceived green design since the concept is still new and different.

In the construction industry, greenwashing used to be rampant because nobody knew what a green building was. If you banned smoking without it being required by law, was your restaurant suddenly a green building? By how much do you have to beat energy code to legitimately call your structure green? And what if you deal with, say, energy, but not air quality?

Saved by LEED

The building industry, at least, is emerging from this conundrum, thanks to the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. It is the first widely accepted standard for what makes a building truly green and consists of a grab-bag of environmental measures a builder can implement, from air quality to recycled content to energy use.

The measures are third-party certified, and if you hit a certain threshold, you get certified at silver, gold or platinum. Now if a builder claims a structure is green, he or she will have to stand up to LEED standards, and deception is going to be more difficult.

The problem for clients and builders is that what makes a structure truly green often isn't visible and can be both costly and hard to understand. For example, one of the best green building techniques has nothing to do with sexy and visible efforts like recycled furniture or roof gardens. It's called "commissioning."

Commissioning

When a standard building is constructed, an architect draws it, an engineer designs the mechanical system, a contractor builds it and an owner operates it. But often, these four entities communicate only minimally. The result? Not only does the heating and ventilation system not work to specifications, but nobody knows that.

Commissioning brings in a third-party engineer to inspect a building's HVAC system, ensuring that it runs to specifications. The engineer has no vested interest in saying that the system works. And guess what? Most HVAC systems don't run properly without commissioning. In fact, studies have shown that commissioning can save up to 40 percent annually in heating costs just through improved efficiency, even in inefficient systems. At our Sundeck Restaurant, the heating system had all kinds of glitches we had to fix, and commissioning proved so valuable in helping us figure that out, that we now commission all of our buildings.

Commissioning is the sort of serious commitment a builder or owner can make to get past accusations of greenwashing, which can be very damaging to one's image. But if you've created a real green building through, for example, LEED certification or comprehensive energy-efficiency measures coupled with commissioning, you shouldn't be afraid to hype it.

After all, part of the mission of green development is to spread the word on what are ultimately superior building techniques. Eventually, markets won't accept anything short of a green building, and greenwashing, as least in the construction sector, will be a thing of the past.

Auden Schendler is director of environmental affairs at the Aspen Skiing Co., which is completing its second LEED-certified building.

For more information on green building and the LEED program, go to www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CategoryID=19

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