From the Editor
Earlier this month, an energy consultant named Henry Gifford sued the U.S. Green Building Council for $100 million. The class-action lawsuit claims damages for consumers, taxpayers, and building design and construction professionals because, according to the suit, USGBC, via its LEED rating system, has created a monopoly and misled the industry into building buildings that don’t perform as energy efficiently as designed, or as even energy efficiently as their traditional counterparts.

Most legal experts (including some I’ve talked to) say the challenge of the suit lies in getting class certification. This article from the Green Building Law Update explains the issue very well, but essentially class certification means a judge must agree that the class (or in this particular suit’s case, classes) of people the suit alleges actually has been the victim of damages.

While there have been a few other LEED-related lawsuits in the last few years, Gifford’s suit is really the first to take on the legitimacy of LEED directly. And while most agree it doesn’t stand much of a chance, the issue it raises regarding the performance of LEED-certified buildings is certainly an important one — so much so that there are rumblings that USGBC will soon begin decertifying buildings that don’t perform.

In the meantime, USGBC is still hard at work on its Building Performance Partnership (BPP). The BPP, which launched last year with the release of LEED 2009 last year, and recently was opened to existing buildings with already-achieved LEED certification, is basically USGBC’s strategy for studying the ongoing energy and water use of buildings. For new registered buildings, LEED requires owners to report five years of energy and water data. And owners of existing buildings with LEED certification can take part voluntarily. They’ll get access to all the data USGBC collects as their reward. 

So whether you believe that Gifford’s efforts are misguided, or whether you think he’s taking an important step to closing a loophole, the one thing on which just about everyone agrees is that the suit shines a much more intense light on the issue of LEED buildings’ energy performance. And that’s an issue that’s not going away anytime soon.

Have you read about Gifford’s suit? What do you think?  

Cheers,

Greg Zimmerman, editor  

 

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