By Louis Iannaco
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has direct access to the many conversations, communities and commitments that are part of how green building is moving forward. At the very top of that list is its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) initiative, where member involvement has led to LEED buildings being designed, built and operated in every state and in 69 countries.

But while being green is an idea that has clearly entered the mainstream, seeing real results on a large scale is still an ambitious goal. “Only 3% of new commercial buildings in 2007 are estimated to have met minimum certification levels,” noted Peter Templeton, senior vice president, USGBC, “and only 0.2% of new residential construction is built green. It’s clear that the USGBC community must step up our work to increase sustainable practices in new construction, existing building conversions, neighborhood developments, our children’s schools, our public buildings and every aspect of the built environment.”

To that end, USGBC has completed its next strategic plan, which will carry it through 2013. “It has been developed with an emphasis on extending the benefits of green building beyond the building footprint and into our cities and communities, and on the reduction and eventual elimination of the building industry’s contribution’s to climate change and natural resource depletion,” Templeton noted.

“Our members have moved USGBC’s programs forward at every opportunity,” he explained, “from a sole focus on new construction in LEED v.2.0 to the development of LEED 2009, a rating system that applies throughout the lifecycle of buildings and across multiple market sectors, and focuses all ratings systems on the building impacts that matter most—energy efficiency and climate change.”

Member participation, whether on committees, working groups or during the public comment periods, the spokesman noted, will ensure that the LEED version, which goes to member ballot this month, sets a new bar.

“Without question,” he said, “it is the passionate involvement of our members that drives our success. The expertise our members lend to LEED’s development carries over into the larger arena of green building education at all levels. The knowledge and leadership that members share through LEED workshops and the diverse Education Provider Program encourage market uptake, drive policy development, and educate the many stakeholders in green building as to why it matters, and how to design, build, operate and finance their projects.

At the center of USGBC’s strategic plan is its imperative of accelerating green building demand, delivery and accessibility. “It is built on our guiding principles and introduces one more:” explained Templeton, “the need to elevate social equity as a value and outcome integral to sustainably built environments. The plan lays out a set of clearly defined strategic initiatives defining how we will focus our talent and resources. It will function as our roadmap for determining immediate and measurable results across the wide scope of work necessary for true market transformation.”

The following strategic goals define the priorities USGBC will pursue to further its mission over the next five to 10 years:

• Sustainable Cities and Communities: Catalyze and help lead the building sector’s active participation in the movement to achieve sustainable cities and communities.

• Climate and Natural Resources: Lead the dramatic reduction and eventual elimination of construction and operations’ contributions to climate change and natural resource depletion.

• Green Building Marketplace: Accelerate green building demand, delivery and accessibility.

• Public Policy: Advocate for effective and comprehensive green building policies and codes at all levels of government.

• International: Advance green building around the world by developing certification capacity, sharing knowledge and collaboratively advancing regionally appropriate and effective green building practices and policies.

• Organizational Excellence: Leverage USGBC’s organizational structure and capacity to support and catalyze the market transformation required to achieve its mission.

According to Bill Gregory, Milliken’s director of sustainability, a new strategic plan is “timely, however, a good mix of constituent response is needed to better reflect the categories of USGBC membership. Today, the base is weighted heavily to architects and designers. Broader representation in developing initiatives ensures greater support among stakeholders when the results are announced.”

Dave Kitts, vice president of environment for Mannington, said the mill has been following the latest developments regarding LEED 2009, having formally submitted its comments during the public/member comment period ( FCNews, June 2/9).

“Our reaction is,” he added, “LEED is fundamentally good, although it has various inconsistencies which cause confusion in the marketplace. LEED 2009 is a good attempt to build better consistency across the various systems it addresses, and we’re all supportive of the eventual ‘book shelf’ approach that will evolve after this LEED 2009 step.

“By ‘book shelf’ I mean that eventually there won’t be specific LEED systems that buildings have to conform to,” he concluded. “There will eventually be a broad array of credits in general categories, and a project’s LEED team will choose credits from the ‘book shelf’ that fits the particular building and its unique characteristics and locale.”

For more on USGBC’s LEED 2009, visit www.usgbc.org.