Green building foundered in the 1970s. Why is it going to take hold this time?
The building industry is ready this time. So are building owners, tenants, and families. We have better information, better tools, and better technology needed to build better homes, and it’s being embraced across the board. Everyone deserves to be in a building that is safe, healthy, and clean.
Plus, there’s the added incentive for American families looking to green their homes as a real way to cut the cost on their energy bills.

Some builders say customers want granite countertops, not extra insulation. What’s green building’s biggest selling point?
Market differentiation. If there are two identical homes for sale and the first one is more durable, health conscious, efficient, and environmentally friendly than the other, that first one is going to sell first. LEED has become a mark of excellence in the public’s eye.

“Built to code” used to be a sign of quality. What’s wrong with building to code?
Baseline building codes have to evolve to the 21st century and acknowledge the tremendous advances that have been made in products, practices, and technologies. Sustainability must become a part of the codes.

The USGBC has been criticized for not paying sufficient attention to the actual energy use of certified buildings.
Last year, USGBC initiated its Building Performance Partnership (BPP), which is a program open to all current whole-building LEED-certified commercial and residential projects. BPP participants share their buildings’ performance data with USGBC, identifying opportunities for each project to improve its own performance and also helping guide the ongoing development of LEED toward constantly improving performance across the certified building stock. USGBC also requires all projects certified under the newest version of LEED to report their utility usage to USGBC. This will allow for a two-way conversation between the certified projects and the developers of LEED, which will influence the ongoing development and evolution of the LEED program. And USGBC is proposing a new energy metric for the next version of the LEED for Homes program, which places a cap on the maximum allowable energy use of projects, based on the number of bedrooms in a home.

At this point, meeting the requirements of LEED for Homes, even achieving platinum status, results in a house that does less damage to the environment. Do you think it’s possible to build a home that does no damage to the environment?
That is our vision, and we are working every day to turn that into a reality. We’re confident that as green building progresses, we’ll improve upon the current model of energy-efficient homes that will tread even more lightly on the earth—and, one day, buildings that actually give back. But what we see as an equally important concept is the greening of the world’s existing homes and buildings. Making sure that America’s 120 million existing homes are operating sustainably is a vital part of our ability to slow climate change, reduce energy dependence, and provide ways for homeowners to reduce their energy and water usage.

Everyone in the green-building industry ostensibly has the same goals, yet there seems to be lots of infighting and nitpicking between some of the factions. Is there a way that USGBC and LEED can get all of the players heading in the same direction?
We work closely with a number of people on many organizational fronts to extend the benefits of green building to communities worldwide. In fact, collaboration is the only thing that’s going to get us where we need to be, and we are grateful to be working alongside some critically important organizations to make sure our work gets done across the industry and that our ultimate goal—that our families live in healthy, vibrant communities—comes to fruition.

Photo: courtesy of U.S. Green Building Council