BLOG 1 - Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
American Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is commonly known as LEED. LEED was established in 1998 by the US Green Building Council. LEED was put into place to achieve six goals: reduce contribution to global climate change, enhance individual human health, protect and enhance biodiversity and ecosystem, protect and restore water resources, promote sustainable and regenerative material cycle, and enhance community quality of life. In simple terms, LEED decreases negative impacts on the environment and maximizes energy efficiency. Having more "healthy, efficient, carbon and cost-saving green buildings," benefits businesses due to a higher resale value and lower operational costs.
Additionally, it benefits people due to the focus on occupant well-being and having a healthier indoor space. Lastly and most importantly, LEED benefits the environment by using less energy, water, and resources. Moreover, it preserves land and habitat which allows for a cleaner and greener environment. While it is important to have more LEED-certified buildings in the world, the cost of construction and having the building be LEED is not cheap by any means.
An example of a LEED-certified building is the Empire State Building in New York, which holds the record for the tallest United States building to receive certification. The Empire State Building was awarded the Gold certification due to low-flow fixtures in restrooms, using green cleaning supplies and pest control products, using recycled carpets, low off-gassing wall coverings, and paints, and having mandatory green requirements in lease agreements. While it had cost $0.25 per square foot for the Empire State Building to be LEED Gold Certified, it was worth it in the end due to how much money is being saved a year on reduced energy. According to the USGBC, the renovations to the Empire State Building "are guaranteed to reduce the building's energy consumption by more than 38 percent and should save $4.4 million in energy costs annually."
Pictured above is the Empire State Building in New York
INITIATIVES FOR THE YEAR
According to the USGBC, "between January 2017 and December 2021, over 36,835 projects earned LEED certification, covering 4.63 billion gross square feet of space." Additionally, higher cities such as Chicago, Minneapolis, and Seattle have contributed to 30% of office spaces being LEED-certified as of the last year. Moving forward, the USGBC came out with a report in June 2022 that demonstrates their steps moving forward and involving buildings to become LEED certified, especially new construction buildings. The main ideas included in the report were expanding inclusivity, diversity, and equality in environments. Additionally, another idea was investing more products in human health and well-being. The last big point made was how climate change is changing the environment and LEED must adapt to fixing the problem, such as having carbon sequestration.
ONE STEP FURTHER
EXTRA SOURCES
Explanation of LEED -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlVseOWToL4
Benefits of LEED-Certified Buildings -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quLR_NvKgo4
Future LEED Report -
https://www.usgbc.org/sites/default/files/2022-06/LEED_future-of-LEED-report_June%202022.pdf
Izzy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for such an informative Blog. I appreciate how in-depth you went into explaining LEED, yet still creating an interesting piece. The beginning summary of LEED and its goals and mission was well-done and helped set up the rest of your blog post. Though small, I appreciate you mentioning how expensive the LEED process can be, because it showed that you understood both the positives and negatives of pursuing LEED certification.
However, I most enjoyed reading your section on the Empire State Building in New York. For such a famous building, I had no idea that it was LEED gold certified, so this section was educational and fascinating to read. You took your time to research and understand the specifics of the project such as the methods, initiatives, and environmental impacts. I would have loved to learn a bit more about the architects of the building and the people behind its LEED certification. I found a couple of sources that seem to include a bit more of the history:
https://www.esbnyc.com/about/history
https://www.usgbc.org/articles/empire-state-building-achieves-leed-gold
I noticed in your sources, that you used two YouTube videos and I appreciate that you chose to use a couple visual sources. Videos can be highly informative and educationally impactful. I also noticed however that you used no in-text citations. I think including a citation is helpful so that we as readers can know specifically which source you used for that information. Maybe make that a little clearer next time.
Otherwise, I thought you did a great job, and produced a well-researched and well-written blog!