Training of industry professionals in LEED system is essential

There is, perhaps, no one in the sphere of the United States of America who is yet to know of green building and LEED. While the notion of green building is being regarded as the best ploy to fight against the adverse effects of worldwide recession and defeat them, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. Never forget that from its initiation in 1998, LEED has grown to encompass more than 14,000 projects in 50 U.S. States and 30 countries covering 1.062 billion square feet (99 km²) of development area.

However, in spite of all these successes, at times, LEED has been criticized severely for failing to satisfy aspiration and to provide leading. Several organizations allege that LEED is a measurement tool and not a design tool and is also not yet climate specific. For that reason its use is limited. But never think that LEED has no ardent supporter. There are, indeed, lots and they hail the rating system as one of the best processes known hitherto.

One of them is Jerry Yudelson, the noted green building consultant, principal of Yudelson Associates, the leading green building consulting firm and author of 10 green building books. As stated by Yudelson, it is becoming more important (than ever) for companies to respond to the recession through accelerating the training of building industry professionals in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED system. He said categorically, “Green building is here to stay and it’s cost-effective to get everyone trained who touches a building project in any way.”

“Unless you learn how the LEED certification system works, you’re going to be spending a lot of money on consultants and on extra design and construction services.” “Once your associates learn the LEED system, they will be able to see how to economize on these so-called ’soft costs’,” he claims. “Virtually every kind of builder, real estate developer, or engineer can save money by getting their people to do more of the work that would otherwise be done by specialized (and expensive) outside consultants,” he added.