Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2011 10:47:42 -0400
From: chathammatters
Subject: LEED Certification
EnergyStar is an energy efficiency standard, developed by the Department Of Energy and the EPA.
LEED Certification is not an energy efficiency standard, it was developed by a privately held organization, the US Green Building Council – which sells certifications, training, memberships, and related items.
4 Studies have been done looking at the difference between LEED Certified Buildings and Mainstream Buildings
1 done by the US Green Building Council itself, not surprisingly found that it’s own LEED Certified Buildings were more energy efficient.
However, 3 done by various colleges, and peer reviewed, found the opposite, and found fatal flaws in the Green Building Council study, for instance they used mean for one group and compared that against median for another, and they used Site Energy instead of Source Energy for comparing buildings… just a tad bit deceptive to say the least.
Link to the Oberlin Physics Department study:
http://www.oberlin.edu/physics/Scofield/pdf_files/Scofield%20IEPEC%20paper..pdf
Since the study requires an understanding of the difference between Source Energy and Site Energy:
Link to the US Government’s Energy Star explanation of the difference between Site Energy and Source Energy and why Energy Star and the EPA use Source Energy to compare buildings energy efficiency.
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=evaluate_performance.bus_benchmark_comm_bldgs
Our current commissioners were absolutely correct to ditch the exorbitantly expensive LEED Certification for our government buildings.