WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.700 I want you to picture a scenario. It's a Tuesday 00:00:03.700 --> 00:00:06.219 morning. You're walking into one of those big 00:00:06.219 --> 00:00:09.820 Class A office buildings downtown. Or maybe you're 00:00:09.820 --> 00:00:12.259 checking into a new hotel for a conference. You 00:00:12.259 --> 00:00:15.199 go through those big glass revolving doors. That 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:18.260 rush of, you know, conditioned air hits you. 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:21.399 And you head for the reception desk. And right 00:00:21.399 --> 00:00:23.500 there, mounted on the wall. I know exactly what 00:00:23.500 --> 00:00:25.079 you're talking about. Yeah, it's usually on the 00:00:25.079 --> 00:00:28.359 right eye level, polished to a perfect shine, 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:30.859 is a plaque. I can picture it immediately. It's 00:00:30.859 --> 00:00:33.539 usually that brushed silver look. Or sometimes 00:00:33.539 --> 00:00:35.700 it's a thick piece of glass with those fancy 00:00:35.700 --> 00:00:38.039 metal standoff bolts. Exactly. And it has that 00:00:38.039 --> 00:00:40.320 little seal on it, the leaves, the globe thing. 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:43.179 And it says all -lead certification. Maybe it's 00:00:43.179 --> 00:00:46.299 a silver, maybe gold. Or if the developer really, 00:00:46.420 --> 00:00:49.020 you know, spent some serious cash. platinum. 00:00:49.340 --> 00:00:51.880 We see these things absolutely everywhere now. 00:00:51.979 --> 00:00:53.679 And I think for the average person, and I'll 00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:55.479 include myself here, you look at that plaque, 00:00:55.619 --> 00:00:57.100 you give a little internal nod and you think, 00:00:57.159 --> 00:00:59.539 OK, good. This building is one of the good guys. 00:00:59.820 --> 00:01:02.140 It's saving the planet. It's a green building. 00:01:02.299 --> 00:01:04.439 And then you get in the elevator and, you know, 00:01:04.439 --> 00:01:07.459 check your email. That is precisely the intended 00:01:07.459 --> 00:01:10.420 effect. It is the modern seal of approval for 00:01:10.420 --> 00:01:12.719 the built environment. It's a signal that says 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:17.010 we care. Right. But today I want to. sort of 00:01:17.010 --> 00:01:19.349 stop the elevator i want to stand in that lobby 00:01:19.349 --> 00:01:21.290 and really stare at that plaque for a minute 00:01:21.290 --> 00:01:23.650 because i started wondering what does it actually 00:01:23.650 --> 00:01:28.019 mean Is it this rigorous scientific proof that 00:01:28.019 --> 00:01:29.939 this building is an environmental superhero? 00:01:30.579 --> 00:01:33.879 Or is it basically a participation trophy for 00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:36.439 a developer who just, you know, filled out the 00:01:36.439 --> 00:01:38.439 right paperwork and paid the right fees? That 00:01:38.439 --> 00:01:40.700 is the multi -billion dollar question. And frankly, 00:01:40.819 --> 00:01:42.739 the answer is going to frustrate you. It's going 00:01:42.739 --> 00:01:44.939 to fascinate you. And it will probably make you 00:01:44.939 --> 00:01:46.700 look at every single building you enter a little 00:01:46.700 --> 00:01:48.609 differently from now on. That's what we're here 00:01:48.609 --> 00:01:51.769 for. So welcome to the deep dive. Today, we are 00:01:51.769 --> 00:01:54.349 taking a sledgehammer, metaphorically, of course, 00:01:54.430 --> 00:01:58.090 to the LED certification system. Metaphorically. 00:01:58.170 --> 00:02:00.790 BELLEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy 00:02:00.790 --> 00:02:04.150 and Environmental Design. We are going to unpack 00:02:04.150 --> 00:02:07.909 the history. The weirdly addictive point system, 00:02:08.050 --> 00:02:11.189 this phenomenon called lead brain, and the actual 00:02:11.189 --> 00:02:13.330 hard data on whether these buildings save energy 00:02:13.330 --> 00:02:15.789 or, you know, just burn cash. It's a massive 00:02:15.789 --> 00:02:18.669 topic. And to be clear, right off the bat, we 00:02:18.669 --> 00:02:20.750 aren't just talking about a little plaque. We're 00:02:20.750 --> 00:02:23.509 talking about, well, probably the single most 00:02:23.509 --> 00:02:25.969 dominant force in global construction over the 00:02:25.969 --> 00:02:28.300 last 25 years. Let's just establish the scale 00:02:28.300 --> 00:02:29.939 here for a second, because I think there's this 00:02:29.939 --> 00:02:32.319 misconception that this is just a coastal elite 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:34.520 thing, you know, something you only find in San 00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:36.639 Francisco and Brooklyn, but nowhere else. Oh, 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:38.900 that couldn't be further from the truth. If you 00:02:38.900 --> 00:02:42.240 look at the numbers, as of 2024, LED is on the 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:46.439 present. We're looking at over 195 ,000 ED certified 00:02:46.439 --> 00:02:49.860 buildings worldwide. And 195 ,000. And that's 00:02:49.860 --> 00:02:52.900 spread across 186 countries. So while it started 00:02:52.900 --> 00:02:55.860 here in the U .S., it is now. for all intents 00:02:55.860 --> 00:02:58.840 and purposes, the global lingua franca of sustainable 00:02:58.840 --> 00:03:02.439 building. If you go to mainland China, India, 00:03:02.680 --> 00:03:06.300 Canada, Brazil, Sweden, you are seeing these 00:03:06.300 --> 00:03:10.180 plaques absolutely everywhere. So why those countries 00:03:10.180 --> 00:03:12.240 specifically? Is it just that they're building 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:14.060 a lot of new stuff? That's a huge part of it. 00:03:14.199 --> 00:03:16.360 China and India are going through this massive 00:03:16.360 --> 00:03:19.159 urbanization. They need a framework to ensure 00:03:19.159 --> 00:03:21.740 they aren't just building, you know, energy sucking 00:03:21.740 --> 00:03:24.120 monsters. So it's a shortcut. It's a shortcut 00:03:24.120 --> 00:03:27.120 to... having a standard. It also signals to international 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:30.159 investors that this particular asset is class 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:33.400 A quality. It's a global mark of prestige. So 00:03:33.400 --> 00:03:36.400 it's as much a financial signal as it is an environmental 00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:38.939 one. Oh, absolutely. Maybe more so. What about 00:03:38.939 --> 00:03:41.300 back home in the U .S.? Who's winning the green 00:03:41.300 --> 00:03:44.319 race here? If you look at it by square footage 00:03:44.319 --> 00:03:46.659 certified per person. Which is really the best 00:03:46.659 --> 00:03:48.759 way to normalize for population size. Right, 00:03:48.819 --> 00:03:51.039 to make it fair. Yeah, to make it fair. The District 00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:53.439 of Columbia just destroys everyone else. D .C. 00:03:53.479 --> 00:03:55.719 is the capital of Green Building. But among the 00:03:55.719 --> 00:03:57.919 states, you've got the usual suspects. Massachusetts, 00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:00.379 Illinois, New York, California. And it's not 00:04:00.379 --> 00:04:02.180 just skyscrapers, right? We're not just talking 00:04:02.180 --> 00:04:04.460 about office towers. No, and that's the really 00:04:04.460 --> 00:04:06.879 interesting part of its reach. It's hospitals, 00:04:07.139 --> 00:04:09.620 it's elementary schools, it's those massive Amazon 00:04:09.620 --> 00:04:11.699 distribution centers you see everywhere. Oh, 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:14.659 interesting. And even private homes. Although... 00:04:14.860 --> 00:04:17.160 To be fair, the residential side of it is a much 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:19.959 smaller piece of the pie. The real sweet spot 00:04:19.959 --> 00:04:23.139 for ELEAD is big commercial infrastructure. OK, 00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:24.939 so it's everywhere. It's the global standard. 00:04:25.339 --> 00:04:28.279 But it had to start somewhere. I'm assuming this 00:04:28.279 --> 00:04:30.360 was some kind of government mandate. Did the 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:33.060 EPA cook this up in a basement in the 90s to 00:04:33.060 --> 00:04:35.519 force developers to behave? You would think so, 00:04:35.579 --> 00:04:37.819 wouldn't you? But no, and this is absolutely 00:04:37.819 --> 00:04:39.939 critical to understanding why the system works 00:04:39.939 --> 00:04:43.139 the way it does. ILED is, and always has been, 00:04:43.300 --> 00:04:46.459 a voluntary market -driven system. Voluntary? 00:04:46.620 --> 00:04:48.300 Completely. It wasn't the government, it was 00:04:48.300 --> 00:04:50.879 the private sector. So developers essentially 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:55.540 asked to be regulated. That sounds a little uncharacteristic 00:04:55.540 --> 00:04:57.300 for the real estate industry. Well, you have 00:04:57.300 --> 00:05:00.860 to go back to the vibe of the early 1990s. Specifically... 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:04.500 April 1993. Okay, paint the scene for me. Nirvana 00:05:04.500 --> 00:05:06.720 is on the radio, everyone's wearing flannel, 00:05:06.839 --> 00:05:09.680 and construction is what? Construction is the 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:13.459 wild west of greenwashing. The term green building 00:05:13.459 --> 00:05:16.079 was just starting to float around, but nobody, 00:05:16.300 --> 00:05:18.939 and I mean nobody, knew what it meant. It was 00:05:18.939 --> 00:05:21.339 just a buzzword. A total buzzword. A developer 00:05:21.339 --> 00:05:23.680 could slap a recycling bin in the lobby and say, 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:26.100 hey, we're a green building. Another developer 00:05:26.100 --> 00:05:28.519 could install a couple of solar panels. A third 00:05:28.519 --> 00:05:30.379 one could just plant some nice oak trees out 00:05:30.379 --> 00:05:32.990 front. And they all claim to be green. Exactly. 00:05:33.069 --> 00:05:36.389 But if everything is green, then nothing is green. 00:05:36.490 --> 00:05:40.180 It was marketing chaos. Okay, so... A problem 00:05:40.180 --> 00:05:43.019 in search of a solution. Precisely. So the U 00:05:43.019 --> 00:05:46.399 .S. Green Building Council, or USGBC, was formed 00:05:46.399 --> 00:05:49.379 to fix this. And the founding trio, it really 00:05:49.379 --> 00:05:51.300 sounds like this set up to a bar joke. I'm listening. 00:05:51.480 --> 00:05:53.500 You had Rick Vidridzi, who was a marketing guy 00:05:53.500 --> 00:05:55.279 at Carrier, the air conditioning giant. Okay, 00:05:55.319 --> 00:05:57.779 a marketing guy. You had David Gottfried, a real 00:05:57.779 --> 00:06:00.800 estate developer, and Michael Italiano, an environmental 00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:03.980 lawyer. Marketing, real estate, and law. That 00:06:03.980 --> 00:06:05.759 is not the Captain Planet Squad I was expecting. 00:06:06.040 --> 00:06:07.959 Where are all the, you know, the tree huggers? 00:06:08.180 --> 00:06:10.959 Oh. They were there. But this leadership group 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:13.600 is very telling. They understood from day one 00:06:13.600 --> 00:06:16.959 that for this to work, it couldn't just be about 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:19.060 saving the polar bears. It had to make business 00:06:19.060 --> 00:06:21.279 sense. It had to work for the market. It had 00:06:21.279 --> 00:06:23.500 to. They first met at the American Institute 00:06:23.500 --> 00:06:25.540 of Architects boardroom. It started with about 00:06:25.540 --> 00:06:28.399 60 firms. And they needed a rule book, a common 00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:30.980 language. They needed a yardstick. And for that, 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:33.620 we have to introduce the George Washington of 00:06:33.620 --> 00:06:36.160 this whole movement, a man named Robert K. Watson. 00:06:36.620 --> 00:06:39.399 The founding father of LEED. Yes, that's what 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:41.519 he's called. He was a senior scientist at the 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:44.180 Natural Resources Defense Council, the NRDC. 00:06:44.779 --> 00:06:46.740 He's the one who actually coined the acronym 00:06:46.740 --> 00:06:50.839 LED. And more importantly, he shepherded this 00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:52.939 thing through what was called the consensus process. 00:06:53.399 --> 00:06:55.560 Consensus process sounds like a very polite way 00:06:55.560 --> 00:06:58.899 of saying herding cats. Oh, it was brutal. Could 00:06:58.899 --> 00:07:01.579 you imagine getting carpet manufacturers, steel 00:07:01.579 --> 00:07:04.660 tycoons, architects, and hardcore environmentalists 00:07:04.660 --> 00:07:07.399 all in the same room and trying to get them to 00:07:07.399 --> 00:07:10.000 agree on how many points a bamboo floor is worth? 00:07:10.439 --> 00:07:14.079 It took years. But Watson held it all together 00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:17.660 because he knew, fundamentally, the market needed 00:07:17.660 --> 00:07:20.540 a standard. Without a standard, you couldn't 00:07:20.540 --> 00:07:22.639 prove value. So they built the machine. Let's 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:24.939 talk about how this machine actually works. Because 00:07:24.939 --> 00:07:27.060 when I look at that plaque, I really do feel 00:07:27.060 --> 00:07:29.339 like I'm looking at a high score on a video game. 00:07:29.420 --> 00:07:32.920 That is the perfect analogy. LEED is the gamification 00:07:32.920 --> 00:07:36.300 of construction. It turns building a skyscraper 00:07:36.300 --> 00:07:38.839 into a role -playing game where you're just grinding 00:07:38.839 --> 00:07:41.620 for experience points. Okay, so break down the 00:07:41.620 --> 00:07:43.839 scoreboard for me. How do I win this game? The 00:07:43.839 --> 00:07:45.339 structure is actually pretty simple. You have 00:07:45.339 --> 00:07:47.779 a scorecard with 100 base points available, plus 00:07:47.779 --> 00:07:49.959 a few extra bonus points you can get for innovation 00:07:49.959 --> 00:07:52.699 or something called regional priority. Right. 00:07:52.839 --> 00:07:54.899 And depending on how many of those points you 00:07:54.899 --> 00:07:57.819 manage to collect, you unlock a different achievement 00:07:57.819 --> 00:08:01.040 level. These are the tiers, the silver, gold, 00:08:01.259 --> 00:08:03.660 platinum. Right. So if you just get 40 to 49 00:08:03.660 --> 00:08:07.300 points, you are certified. That's the entry level. 00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:09.339 It basically means you did a little bit better 00:08:09.339 --> 00:08:11.439 than the bare minimum legal code. That's the 00:08:11.439 --> 00:08:13.920 participation trophy. Pretty much. Then 50 to 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:17.160 59 points gets you silver. 60 to 79 gets you 00:08:17.160 --> 00:08:20.899 gold. And then the big one, the status symbol 00:08:20.899 --> 00:08:23.420 that every CEO wants for their global headquarters 00:08:23.420 --> 00:08:26.860 is platinum. That requires 80 points or more. 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:29.120 So getting a platinum building is basically like 00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:31.480 getting an A minus or maybe a B plus on your 00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:34.399 report card. 80 out of 100. In a school setting, 00:08:34.539 --> 00:08:37.350 maybe. But in the world of construction, getting 00:08:37.350 --> 00:08:40.509 80 points is incredibly difficult. It requires 00:08:40.509 --> 00:08:42.970 a really concerted effort across every single 00:08:42.970 --> 00:08:44.990 category of the design. And what are those categories? 00:08:45.090 --> 00:08:47.110 I'm assuming energy is the big one. Energy and 00:08:47.110 --> 00:08:49.330 atmosphere, or EA, is the heavyweight champion 00:08:49.330 --> 00:08:51.750 for sure. It has the most points available. But 00:08:51.750 --> 00:08:54.149 you also have sustainable sites, which is about 00:08:54.149 --> 00:08:57.070 where you build and how you treat the land. Water 00:08:57.070 --> 00:08:59.929 efficiency, low -flow toilets, drought -tolerant 00:08:59.929 --> 00:09:01.690 landscaping. The usual stuff. The usual stuff. 00:09:01.830 --> 00:09:04.929 Then you have materials and resources. Are you 00:09:04.929 --> 00:09:07.509 using recycled steel? Is your wood certified 00:09:07.509 --> 00:09:10.210 as sustainably harvested? And then a really important 00:09:10.210 --> 00:09:13.090 one, indoor environmental quality airflow, low 00:09:13.090 --> 00:09:16.350 toxin paints, access to daylight. Now, I have 00:09:16.350 --> 00:09:19.070 to ask the cynical question here. Does this cost 00:09:19.070 --> 00:09:21.639 money? And I don't just mean the cost of buying 00:09:21.639 --> 00:09:23.720 better windows. I mean, does the plaque itself 00:09:23.720 --> 00:09:26.519 cost money? Oh, absolutely. You have to pay to 00:09:26.519 --> 00:09:28.960 play the game. You pay registration fees and 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:31.419 certification fees to an organization called 00:09:31.419 --> 00:09:34.779 the GBCI, the Green Building Certification Institute. 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:37.700 And how much are we talking? For a massive, complex 00:09:37.700 --> 00:09:41.159 campus project, these fees alone can run upwards 00:09:41.159 --> 00:09:43.840 of a million dollars. Wait, hold on. A million 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:46.759 dollars just for the bureaucratic privilege of 00:09:46.759 --> 00:09:49.460 getting the plaque, not for the actual materials 00:09:49.460 --> 00:09:51.659 in the building. For the very largest projects, 00:09:51.899 --> 00:09:54.000 yes, the administrative fees can get that high. 00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:56.559 For a normal office building, it's more like 00:09:56.559 --> 00:09:59.480 tens of thousands. But the real cost isn't even 00:09:59.480 --> 00:10:02.000 the fee. It's what they call the soft cost. Soft 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:05.419 costs. That sounds like a euphemism for... lawyers, 00:10:05.620 --> 00:10:08.700 consultants, energy modelers, commissioning agents. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:11.679 To get a LEED certification, you almost always 00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:13.860 have to hire a specific LEED consultant. And 00:10:13.860 --> 00:10:15.620 their whole job is just to manage the paperwork. 00:10:15.899 --> 00:10:19.100 Their entire job is to track the paperwork, manage 00:10:19.100 --> 00:10:21.840 the point scorecard, and argue with the USGBC 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:25.549 reviewers over every little detail. Studies show 00:10:25.549 --> 00:10:28.370 all this administrative and design overhead adds 00:10:28.370 --> 00:10:31.330 about 1 % to 6 % to the total project budget. 00:10:31.570 --> 00:10:34.370 So if I'm building a $500 million tower, I might 00:10:34.370 --> 00:10:36.970 be lighting, what, $10, $20 million on fire just 00:10:36.970 --> 00:10:38.990 to manage the paperwork for this plaque? You 00:10:38.990 --> 00:10:41.190 might be. But the developer would argue they 00:10:41.190 --> 00:10:43.409 aren't lighting it on fire. They would say they're 00:10:43.409 --> 00:10:45.649 investing it in an asset that will command higher 00:10:45.649 --> 00:10:48.090 rents and attract better tenants. Okay, so there 00:10:48.090 --> 00:10:50.009 is a financial logic there. But here is where 00:10:50.009 --> 00:10:52.929 I want to pivot to the real controversy. Because 00:10:52.929 --> 00:10:54.470 you dropped a bomb on me when we were prepping 00:10:54.470 --> 00:10:56.590 for this. You said something that I'm still trying 00:10:56.590 --> 00:10:59.629 to wrap my head around. You said LED is a design 00:10:59.629 --> 00:11:03.009 tool, not a performance tool. Yes. And if you 00:11:03.009 --> 00:11:04.929 take nothing else away from this whole deep dive, 00:11:05.049 --> 00:11:07.610 please take this. Historically, that plaque on 00:11:07.610 --> 00:11:10.169 the wall is an award for intent, not necessarily 00:11:10.169 --> 00:11:13.250 for results. OK, explain that. Because if I buy 00:11:13.250 --> 00:11:15.470 a car that says it gets 50 miles per gallon on 00:11:15.470 --> 00:11:17.549 the sticker and I drive it off the lot and it 00:11:17.549 --> 00:11:21.200 only gets 12. i can sue somebody for false advertising 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:24.139 buildings are different when you submit for led 00:11:24.139 --> 00:11:26.659 certification The building usually hasn't even 00:11:26.659 --> 00:11:29.440 been occupied yet. It's an empty shell. So how 00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:31.639 can you prove it's energy efficient? You can't 00:11:31.639 --> 00:11:33.259 show them a utility bill. Right. There is no 00:11:33.259 --> 00:11:35.279 utility bill yet. So you show them a computer 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:38.600 model. With simulation. Exactly. You hire a team 00:11:38.600 --> 00:11:41.580 of engineers to build a digital twin of your 00:11:41.580 --> 00:11:44.220 building and a computer. They input all the specs, 00:11:44.440 --> 00:11:46.700 the R value, the insulation, the efficiency of 00:11:46.700 --> 00:11:48.899 the chiller, the power density of the lighting. 00:11:49.019 --> 00:11:52.029 Okay. And then... and this is the absolute key, 00:11:52.250 --> 00:11:55.269 they compare that model of your building to something 00:11:55.269 --> 00:11:58.070 called a baseline building. What on earth is 00:11:58.070 --> 00:12:00.950 a baseline building? It's a hypothetical, totally 00:12:00.950 --> 00:12:03.610 imaginary building. It's the same size and shape 00:12:03.610 --> 00:12:05.990 as yours, but it's designed to be built to the 00:12:05.990 --> 00:12:09.649 bare minimum legal code. It is essentially the 00:12:09.649 --> 00:12:11.889 mediocre ghost of your building. So the test 00:12:11.889 --> 00:12:14.250 isn't, are you efficient? The test is, are you 00:12:14.250 --> 00:12:17.009 better than a piece of junk? In a nutshell, yes. 00:12:17.669 --> 00:12:20.070 If your computer model shows that your design 00:12:20.070 --> 00:12:23.549 will theoretically use 20 % less energy than 00:12:23.549 --> 00:12:26.590 the mediocre ghost baseline, you get the points. 00:12:26.730 --> 00:12:29.470 But models are. They're squishy. I mean, you 00:12:29.470 --> 00:12:31.210 can make a model say a lot of things depending 00:12:31.210 --> 00:12:33.470 on the assumptions you plug in. And welcome to 00:12:33.470 --> 00:12:36.470 the wonderful world of modeling gymnastics. Engineers 00:12:36.470 --> 00:12:38.830 are very, very good at tweaking the assumptions 00:12:38.830 --> 00:12:42.090 to improve the score. For example, the model 00:12:42.090 --> 00:12:43.929 might assume that the automated daylight sensors 00:12:43.929 --> 00:12:46.230 will perfectly dim the lights every time the 00:12:46.230 --> 00:12:48.700 sun comes out. But in reality... In reality, 00:12:48.840 --> 00:12:51.299 maybe that sensor's a little finicky. So the 00:12:51.299 --> 00:12:53.159 facility manager just puts a piece of duct tape 00:12:53.159 --> 00:12:55.080 over it to keep the lights on 100 % of the time. 00:12:55.220 --> 00:12:58.720 So the model says savings. But reality says waste. 00:12:59.539 --> 00:13:02.500 The LEDD reviewer, however, only ever saw the 00:13:02.500 --> 00:13:04.860 model. You get the plaque based on the simulation, 00:13:05.139 --> 00:13:07.799 not the reality. That feels like a massive, massive 00:13:07.799 --> 00:13:09.840 loophole. If nobody ever comes back to actually 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:11.940 check the meter, you can just game the system 00:13:11.940 --> 00:13:14.480 from the start. And that leads us directly to 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:17.889 the concept of Leeds Brain. Lead brain. I love 00:13:17.889 --> 00:13:19.509 this term. It sounds like some kind of disease. 00:13:19.850 --> 00:13:22.629 It kind of is, in a way. It was coined in a really 00:13:22.629 --> 00:13:26.129 scathing 2005 article by two guys, Auden Schendler 00:13:26.129 --> 00:13:30.370 and Randy Udell, titled, LED is broken, let's 00:13:30.370 --> 00:13:32.870 fix it. And they argued that the point system 00:13:32.870 --> 00:13:36.789 causes people to lose their minds. The goal stops 00:13:36.789 --> 00:13:39.210 being let's build a good, efficient building, 00:13:39.309 --> 00:13:41.970 and it becomes let's get the points. Just point 00:13:41.970 --> 00:13:44.769 mongering. Pure point mongering. It's the classic 00:13:44.769 --> 00:13:47.210 teaching to the test problem. Imagine you're 00:13:47.210 --> 00:13:49.389 a designer. You have limited budget. You could 00:13:49.389 --> 00:13:53.129 spend, say, $50 ,000 on a really sophisticated, 00:13:53.450 --> 00:13:56.370 high -efficiency HVAC upgrade. That sounds like 00:13:56.370 --> 00:13:58.700 it would save a ton of carbon. A ton. But it's 00:13:58.700 --> 00:14:00.659 hard, it's expensive, and it might only net you, 00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:03.559 say, two points. Right. Or you could spend that 00:14:03.559 --> 00:14:06.620 same $50 ,000 installing some bike racks, a shower 00:14:06.620 --> 00:14:08.840 for commuters, using some recycled carpet, and 00:14:08.840 --> 00:14:10.679 putting in a native plant garden. And those are 00:14:10.679 --> 00:14:12.600 cheap and easy. They're cheap, they're easy, 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:14.480 and they might get you five points. So you buy 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:17.059 the bike racks, you skip the hard HVAC upgrade, 00:14:17.259 --> 00:14:19.240 and you end up with a gold rating instead of 00:14:19.240 --> 00:14:21.820 a silver. But the building is actually worse 00:14:21.820 --> 00:14:25.799 for the planet. Precisely. You prioritize the 00:14:25.799 --> 00:14:29.389 cheap points. Over the hard points. Schindler 00:14:29.389 --> 00:14:31.509 and Udall pointed out all these absurdities, 00:14:31.549 --> 00:14:33.950 like the reflective roof debate. Oh, this is 00:14:33.950 --> 00:14:35.429 the one about the Rocky Mountains, right? Yes. 00:14:35.870 --> 00:14:38.710 So a white reflective roof is great in Miami 00:14:38.710 --> 00:14:41.769 or Phoenix. It bounces the sun's heat back into 00:14:41.769 --> 00:14:45.470 space and keeps the building cool. LE gives you 00:14:45.470 --> 00:14:47.870 a point for that to reduce the heat island effect. 00:14:48.149 --> 00:14:50.519 That makes perfect sense. But LE... at least 00:14:50.519 --> 00:14:52.840 in its earlier versions, gave you that point 00:14:52.840 --> 00:14:54.740 regardless of where your building was located. 00:14:55.059 --> 00:14:57.360 So you had designers in the High Rocky Mountains, 00:14:57.519 --> 00:15:00.960 in ski towns, seriously debating putting white 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:02.820 roofs on their buildings. Wait a minute. If you're 00:15:02.820 --> 00:15:05.240 in a ski town, you want a black roof. You want 00:15:05.240 --> 00:15:07.120 to absorb every bit of heat you can get to keep 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:09.559 the building warm. Correct. A white roof in a 00:15:09.559 --> 00:15:11.779 heating -dominated climate actually increases 00:15:11.779 --> 00:15:14.519 your heating bill. It is environmentally stupid. 00:15:15.100 --> 00:15:18.419 But if you're two points away from that coveted 00:15:18.419 --> 00:15:20.909 platinum plaque, And the white roof is an easy 00:15:20.909 --> 00:15:23.830 point to get. L .E. brain takes over. It takes 00:15:23.830 --> 00:15:26.370 over. You do the objectively bad thing to get 00:15:26.370 --> 00:15:28.649 the good badge. That is just maddening. It's 00:15:28.649 --> 00:15:31.269 putting bureaucratic compliance completely over 00:15:31.269 --> 00:15:34.590 common sense engineering. It is. But if you think 00:15:34.590 --> 00:15:37.289 that's bad, we really need to talk about the 00:15:37.289 --> 00:15:40.590 location paradox. Because this is where the wheels, 00:15:40.830 --> 00:15:43.700 in my opinion. really fall off the wagon. This 00:15:43.700 --> 00:15:46.399 is the argument that a so -called green building 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:49.220 in the wrong place isn't green at all. That's 00:15:49.220 --> 00:15:51.639 the one. This has been championed by critics 00:15:51.639 --> 00:15:53.480 like David Owen, who wrote Green Metropolis, 00:15:53.700 --> 00:15:56.659 and Jeff Speck, the urban planner. And their 00:15:56.659 --> 00:15:59.580 argument is elegantly simple. The transportation 00:15:59.580 --> 00:16:02.860 energy associated with a building often completely 00:16:02.860 --> 00:16:05.600 dwarfs the energy the building itself uses. It's 00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:07.659 the commute. It's always the commute. If you 00:16:07.659 --> 00:16:09.960 build a platinum -certified net -zero fortress 00:16:09.960 --> 00:16:12.679 of sustainability, but you build it in the middle 00:16:12.679 --> 00:16:14.860 of a cornfield 20 miles from where anyone actually 00:16:14.860 --> 00:16:17.779 lives, you've failed. Because everyone has to 00:16:17.779 --> 00:16:20.159 drive their SUV to get to your eco -fortress. 00:16:20.179 --> 00:16:22.960 Exactly. Let's look at the famous Gap Inc. example. 00:16:23.399 --> 00:16:26.059 Gap built this stunning green building in San 00:16:26.059 --> 00:16:29.100 Bruno, California. It had a grass roof. It had 00:16:29.100 --> 00:16:31.460 amazing natural light. It was celebrated everywhere. 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:34.039 Sounds great. But it was located 16 miles from 00:16:34.039 --> 00:16:35.679 their headquarters in downtown San Francisco. 00:16:35.860 --> 00:16:38.740 So what happened? Well, people couldn't walk 00:16:38.740 --> 00:16:40.500 there. They couldn't easily take public transit. 00:16:40.620 --> 00:16:43.620 So Gap had to run its own fleet of private shuttle 00:16:43.620 --> 00:16:46.620 buses back and forth all day. And David Owen 00:16:46.620 --> 00:16:50.080 dropped this just hammer of a quote. No bus is 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:53.529 as green as an elevator. Wow. That hits hard. 00:16:53.730 --> 00:16:56.289 No bus is as green as an elevator. Think about 00:16:56.289 --> 00:16:59.009 the physics of that. If Gabbitt just leased more 00:16:59.009 --> 00:17:02.610 space in an old, supposedly inefficient skyscraper 00:17:02.610 --> 00:17:04.490 right there in San Francisco, their employees 00:17:04.490 --> 00:17:06.329 would have just taken the elevator or walked 00:17:06.329 --> 00:17:08.950 or taken the BART. Right. By moving to the green 00:17:08.950 --> 00:17:10.970 campus, the carbon emissions from the shuttle 00:17:10.970 --> 00:17:14.150 buses and all the employee cars completely wiped 00:17:14.150 --> 00:17:17.049 out any savings from the building's fancy efficiency 00:17:17.049 --> 00:17:19.309 features. So it's a net loss for the planet, 00:17:19.369 --> 00:17:22.029 but it's wrapped in a pretty green bow. And there's 00:17:22.029 --> 00:17:24.730 an even worse example, the EPA itself. Oh, no. 00:17:24.829 --> 00:17:26.650 Please don't say the Environmental Protection 00:17:26.650 --> 00:17:31.210 Agency. The EPA Region 7 headquarters. For years, 00:17:31.269 --> 00:17:33.369 they were located downtown in Kansas City, Missouri. 00:17:33.769 --> 00:17:36.349 Then they moved to a suburb called Lenexa, Kansas, 00:17:36.569 --> 00:17:38.869 which is about 20 miles away. And they moved 00:17:38.869 --> 00:17:43.569 into a shiny new LED building. A shiny new LED 00:17:43.569 --> 00:17:46.470 gold certified building. Let me guess. The commute 00:17:46.470 --> 00:17:49.630 emissions killed them. It was a massacre. Cade 00:17:49.630 --> 00:17:52.430 Benfield from the NRDC actually ran the numbers. 00:17:52.650 --> 00:17:55.390 He looked at the total carbon footprint per employee, 00:17:55.549 --> 00:17:58.230 including their commute. By moving from the dense 00:17:58.230 --> 00:18:01.049 city center to the sprawling suburb, the carbon 00:18:01.049 --> 00:18:03.670 emissions per person almost tripled. Tripled? 00:18:03.710 --> 00:18:06.309 That's not a rounding error. It went from 0 .39 00:18:06.309 --> 00:18:09.869 metric tons per month to 1 .08. The building 00:18:09.869 --> 00:18:11.609 itself was efficient. It had great insulation, 00:18:11.910 --> 00:18:15.230 great windows. But the simple physics of hundreds 00:18:15.230 --> 00:18:17.849 of people driving 40 miles round trip every single 00:18:17.849 --> 00:18:20.170 day completely overwhelmed the physics of the 00:18:20.170 --> 00:18:22.589 building. Wow. Jeff Speck put it brutally. The 00:18:22.589 --> 00:18:24.930 carbon saved by the new building's LED status 00:18:24.930 --> 00:18:27.269 will be a small fraction of the carbon wasted 00:18:27.269 --> 00:18:29.869 by its location. That is just devastating. It 00:18:29.869 --> 00:18:31.609 really suggests that where you build matters 00:18:31.609 --> 00:18:34.069 maybe 10 times more than how you build. And for 00:18:34.069 --> 00:18:36.190 a very long time, LED did not weight that heavily 00:18:36.190 --> 00:18:37.910 enough. you could get a platinum certification 00:18:37.910 --> 00:18:40.509 for a building in a totally parking -dependent 00:18:40.509 --> 00:18:43.309 suburb. And that, I think, is a fundamental flaw 00:18:43.309 --> 00:18:45.730 in the philosophy. Okay, so the location can 00:18:45.730 --> 00:18:48.369 ruin it, the gaming of points can ruin it, but 00:18:48.369 --> 00:18:50.609 let's zoom back in on the building itself again. 00:18:51.109 --> 00:18:52.869 Let's assume, for the sake of this argument, 00:18:53.089 --> 00:18:56.750 we have a LE building in a good, walkable location. 00:18:57.069 --> 00:18:59.509 Okay. Does the plaque on the wall actually prove 00:18:59.509 --> 00:19:01.910 that it's saving energy? We talked about the 00:19:01.910 --> 00:19:04.690 models, but what about the actual real -world 00:19:04.690 --> 00:19:08.700 data? Ah. Now we enter the data wars, and this 00:19:08.700 --> 00:19:10.900 is where things get really nerdy and really, 00:19:11.019 --> 00:19:12.940 really contentious. I'm ready. Take me to the 00:19:12.940 --> 00:19:16.059 data. Okay. The seminal moment was in 2009. The 00:19:16.059 --> 00:19:19.400 USGBC released a big data set, and then a team 00:19:19.400 --> 00:19:22.279 led by a scientist named Guy Newsham at the National 00:19:22.279 --> 00:19:24.900 Research Council of Canada analyzed it. They 00:19:24.900 --> 00:19:26.680 looked at 100 believed buildings to see if they 00:19:26.680 --> 00:19:28.460 were actually saving energy compared to conventional 00:19:28.460 --> 00:19:31.299 buildings. The moment of truth, and the verdict 00:19:31.299 --> 00:19:33.990 was? The headline was positive. On average, the 00:19:33.990 --> 00:19:37.250 LE buildings consumed 18 % to 39 % less energy. 00:19:37.769 --> 00:19:40.529 The USGVC took a big victory lap. On average, 00:19:40.670 --> 00:19:42.809 I can feel a butt coming. A really big butt. 00:19:42.970 --> 00:19:45.910 It's a huge butt. Because Newsom found that while 00:19:45.910 --> 00:19:48.289 the average was good, the scatter plot of the 00:19:48.289 --> 00:19:52.920 data was terrifying. Roughly 28 % to 35 % of 00:19:52.920 --> 00:19:55.279 the LED buildings in the study actually used 00:19:55.279 --> 00:19:57.420 more energy than their conventional counterparts. 00:19:57.680 --> 00:19:59.980 Wait, wait, say that again? One third of the 00:19:59.980 --> 00:20:02.299 green buildings were actually brown buildings. 00:20:02.619 --> 00:20:05.299 That's what the data showed, yes. If you walked 00:20:05.299 --> 00:20:08.480 into a random LED building back in 2009, there 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:10.480 was about a one in three chance it was performing 00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:13.579 worse than a standard code -compliant box. That's 00:20:13.579 --> 00:20:16.640 shocking. And it gets worse. Newsham found absolutely 00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:19.200 no correlation between the number of energy points 00:20:19.200 --> 00:20:22.200 a building earned in its LED scorecard and its 00:20:22.200 --> 00:20:25.240 actual measured performance. So getting a gold 00:20:25.240 --> 00:20:27.339 or platinum for your energy design didn't actually 00:20:27.339 --> 00:20:29.759 mean you saved more energy in the real world. 00:20:29.920 --> 00:20:33.240 Zero correlation. The points, as a predictor 00:20:33.240 --> 00:20:35.900 of performance, were meaningless. But then a 00:20:35.900 --> 00:20:38.200 physicist named John Schofield entered the chat 00:20:38.200 --> 00:20:40.019 and he basically flipped the whole table over. 00:20:40.220 --> 00:20:41.940 I love when a physicist shows up to an architecture 00:20:41.940 --> 00:20:43.660 party. They always ruin everything with math. 00:20:44.220 --> 00:20:46.619 Schofield looked at the very same data, but he 00:20:46.619 --> 00:20:48.859 said, you guys are all measuring the wrong thing. 00:20:49.579 --> 00:20:52.140 He argued that Lade was obsessed with site energy, 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:54.859 but the planet only cares about source energy. 00:20:55.200 --> 00:20:58.160 Okay, we need to stop and unpack this. This sounds 00:20:58.160 --> 00:20:59.779 technical, but it also sounds like it might be 00:20:59.779 --> 00:21:03.079 the whole ballgame. Site versus source. Explain 00:21:03.079 --> 00:21:05.940 it like I'm five. Okay. Site energy is simple. 00:21:06.359 --> 00:21:08.519 It's what your electric meter on the side of 00:21:08.519 --> 00:21:11.019 the building reads. If your building uses 10 00:21:11.019 --> 00:21:14.000 ,000 kilowatt hours in a month, That's your side 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:16.140 energy. That seems fair. That's what I pay the 00:21:16.140 --> 00:21:18.579 utility company for. It is. But where did that 00:21:18.579 --> 00:21:20.920 electricity come from? That is source energy. 00:21:21.880 --> 00:21:24.759 Let's say you have a building in Seattle. It's 00:21:24.759 --> 00:21:27.240 mostly powered by clean, efficient hydroelectric 00:21:27.240 --> 00:21:30.799 dams. Now take that exact same building and magically 00:21:30.799 --> 00:21:33.339 move it to West Virginia, where the grid is powered 00:21:33.339 --> 00:21:36.480 mostly by burning coal. Same building, same lights, 00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:39.609 same meter reading. Same side energy. But in 00:21:39.609 --> 00:21:42.230 West Virginia, to get that 10 ,000 kilowatt hours 00:21:42.230 --> 00:21:45.109 to your meter, the power plant had to burn a 00:21:45.109 --> 00:21:47.589 massive amount of coal. And a huge amount of 00:21:47.589 --> 00:21:50.769 that energy was lost as waste heat during generation, 00:21:50.970 --> 00:21:53.549 and then more was lost during transmission over 00:21:53.549 --> 00:21:57.329 the power lines. The source energy, the raw fuel 00:21:57.329 --> 00:22:00.269 burned at the power plant, is maybe three times 00:22:00.269 --> 00:22:03.089 higher in West Virginia. than it is in Seattle 00:22:03.089 --> 00:22:05.190 to deliver the same amount of power to the building. 00:22:05.369 --> 00:22:07.750 So the environment cares about the coal burned 00:22:07.750 --> 00:22:09.609 at the source, but the building owner only sees 00:22:09.609 --> 00:22:13.130 the meter reading at the site. Exactly. And Schofield 00:22:13.130 --> 00:22:15.369 found that Lato was awarding all its points based 00:22:15.369 --> 00:22:18.670 on site efficiency. This led to some real perversities. 00:22:18.890 --> 00:22:21.329 For example, electric heating is very efficient 00:22:21.329 --> 00:22:24.089 at the site. But if that electricity comes from 00:22:24.089 --> 00:22:26.549 a coal plant, it is absolutely terrible at the 00:22:26.549 --> 00:22:29.029 source. So he re -ran the numbers. You re -crunch 00:22:29.029 --> 00:22:31.049 the numbers using source energy, and he found... 00:22:31.339 --> 00:22:33.660 Nothing. Nothing. No statistically significant 00:22:33.660 --> 00:22:36.180 reduction in source energy or the associated 00:22:36.180 --> 00:22:38.599 greenhouse gas emissions for LE buildings compared 00:22:38.599 --> 00:22:41.400 to conventional ones. From his perspective, the 00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:43.259 plaque meant absolutely nothing for the climate. 00:22:43.440 --> 00:22:46.049 That is a bombshell. The physicist basically 00:22:46.049 --> 00:22:48.410 says the emperor has no clothes. It was a massive, 00:22:48.450 --> 00:22:51.250 massive controversy. And subsequent studies have 00:22:51.250 --> 00:22:53.930 kind of confirmed pieces of this. A 2013 study 00:22:53.930 --> 00:22:56.410 of office buildings in New York City showed that 00:22:56.410 --> 00:22:59.829 while the gold rated buildings were OK, the silver 00:22:59.829 --> 00:23:02.509 and certified buildings actually used 11 percent 00:23:02.509 --> 00:23:05.890 to 15 percent more source energy than conventional 00:23:05.890 --> 00:23:08.369 buildings. So the lower tier L .A. buildings 00:23:08.369 --> 00:23:11.410 were actively part of the problem. Why? I mean, 00:23:11.410 --> 00:23:14.710 how is the modeling failing this badly? Aside 00:23:14.710 --> 00:23:17.869 from the whole site versus source issue, I think 00:23:17.869 --> 00:23:20.369 the biggest culprit is us, the humans inside 00:23:20.369 --> 00:23:22.849 the building. The technical term is plug loads. 00:23:23.130 --> 00:23:25.309 The stuff we plug in. All the stuff we plug in. 00:23:25.769 --> 00:23:27.529 Models are great at predicting the things that 00:23:27.529 --> 00:23:30.170 are fixed, like lights and pumps and fans. They're 00:23:30.170 --> 00:23:31.789 terrible at predicting what you and I are going 00:23:31.789 --> 00:23:33.890 to do. Right. We bring in mini fridges for our 00:23:33.890 --> 00:23:36.690 lunch. We plug in space heaters under our desks 00:23:36.690 --> 00:23:39.289 because the AC is always too cold. We set up 00:23:39.289 --> 00:23:41.730 entire server racks and closets that were never 00:23:41.730 --> 00:23:44.000 designed to handle that heat load. The secret 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:47.099 space heater under the desk. The silent killer 00:23:47.099 --> 00:23:50.759 of sustainability. It's the enemy. A study by 00:23:50.759 --> 00:23:53.000 Fortes and Chavon showed that these plug loads 00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:55.839 are like the dark matter of building energy use. 00:23:56.420 --> 00:23:59.160 The model assumes a standard office worker who 00:23:59.160 --> 00:24:01.960 behaves perfectly. But real people are mussy. 00:24:02.039 --> 00:24:04.460 They leave windows open while the heat is on. 00:24:04.559 --> 00:24:07.279 They work 18 hours a day instead of eight. The 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:09.259 building is designed like a Ferrari, but it's 00:24:09.259 --> 00:24:11.160 being driven by a teenager who leaves the parking 00:24:11.160 --> 00:24:15.440 brake on. OK, so on energy, the verdict is shaky, 00:24:15.779 --> 00:24:19.420 shaky at best. But we don't just measure buildings 00:24:19.420 --> 00:24:21.779 by their carbon footprint. We also measure them 00:24:21.779 --> 00:24:24.579 by how it feels to be inside them. Is there a 00:24:24.579 --> 00:24:26.799 bright side to this story? There is a very bright 00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:29.279 side. While the energy data is a complete war 00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:32.160 zone of conflicting studies, the data on indoor 00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:35.079 environmental quality, or IEQ, is much, much 00:24:35.079 --> 00:24:37.789 clearer. LE buildings are objectively healthier 00:24:37.789 --> 00:24:39.829 for humans. This is the air quality stuff you 00:24:39.829 --> 00:24:42.410 mentioned. Right. LED has very strict credits 00:24:42.410 --> 00:24:44.690 for ventilation rates, for using low -emitting 00:24:44.690 --> 00:24:47.829 materials like paints and glues and carpets that 00:24:47.829 --> 00:24:50.430 don't off -gas toxic chemicals, and for high 00:24:50.430 --> 00:24:52.509 -quality air filtration. And does that actually 00:24:52.509 --> 00:24:54.549 matter, or is it just that it, you know, smells 00:24:54.549 --> 00:24:57.730 nicer? Oh, it matters for your brain. There was 00:24:57.730 --> 00:25:00.490 a famous study at Harvard by Joseph Allen called 00:25:00.490 --> 00:25:03.049 the COGFIX study, and it looked at cognitive 00:25:03.049 --> 00:25:05.430 function. They put people in controlled environments 00:25:05.430 --> 00:25:08.089 and found that in high -performing green building 00:25:08.089 --> 00:25:11.509 conditions with low CO2 and low VOCs, cognitive 00:25:11.509 --> 00:25:14.769 scores were significantly higher. So you're literally 00:25:14.769 --> 00:25:17.869 smarter in a LEED building. You're less dumb, 00:25:17.970 --> 00:25:20.829 potentially. High CO2 levels from poor ventilation 00:25:20.829 --> 00:25:24.240 make you sluggish and sleepy. Sick building syndrome 00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:27.119 is a real thing. Headaches, fatigue, dry eyes. 00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:29.940 And the data clearly shows that occupants in 00:25:29.940 --> 00:25:32.440 LEED buildings report far fewer of these symptoms. 00:25:32.660 --> 00:25:34.859 Now that is a real return on investment. If your 00:25:34.859 --> 00:25:37.400 employees are even 5 % more productive because 00:25:37.400 --> 00:25:39.940 the air is clean, that pays for the entire building 00:25:39.940 --> 00:25:42.400 pretty fast. Exactly. People forget that the 00:25:42.400 --> 00:25:44.180 salary cost to the people inside the building 00:25:44.180 --> 00:25:46.200 is about 100 times higher than the energy cost 00:25:46.200 --> 00:25:48.470 of running the building. So even if the energy 00:25:48.470 --> 00:25:51.130 savings are a complete wash, the human health 00:25:51.130 --> 00:25:53.349 and productivity benefits alone might justify 00:25:53.349 --> 00:25:55.809 the certification. But are people happier? What 00:25:55.809 --> 00:25:58.750 do the satisfaction surveys say? Mostly, yes. 00:25:59.369 --> 00:26:01.630 Although, there is a funny little detail on the 00:26:01.630 --> 00:26:04.819 data. People in LE buildings are often slightly 00:26:04.819 --> 00:26:07.440 less satisfied with the acoustics and the lighting. 00:26:07.539 --> 00:26:09.279 The lighting? Why the lighting? I thought they 00:26:09.279 --> 00:26:11.779 were all about daylight. They are. But energy 00:26:11.779 --> 00:26:14.579 efficiency often means automated controls. You 00:26:14.579 --> 00:26:16.220 know those motion sensors that turn the lights 00:26:16.220 --> 00:26:18.400 off and you sit too still for five minutes? Oh, 00:26:18.460 --> 00:26:20.980 I hate those sensors. I'm always waving my arms 00:26:20.980 --> 00:26:22.619 around in the dark like an idiot trying to get 00:26:22.619 --> 00:26:25.099 the lights back on. Exactly. Or the automated 00:26:25.099 --> 00:26:27.380 blinds that close on their own when the sun gets 00:26:27.380 --> 00:26:30.720 too bright. People hate giving up control. They 00:26:30.720 --> 00:26:32.720 hate the nanny building turning off their lights 00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:35.740 for them. And that frustration shows up in the 00:26:35.740 --> 00:26:38.500 satisfaction surveys. Interesting. And actually, 00:26:38.519 --> 00:26:40.559 there's a new rival in town on this front called 00:26:40.559 --> 00:26:43.759 the Well Building Standard. Well. Yes. It's a 00:26:43.759 --> 00:26:45.900 certification that focuses only on human health 00:26:45.900 --> 00:26:49.579 and wellness. And a 2024 study compared them. 00:26:49.869 --> 00:26:51.970 and found that occupant satisfaction in well 00:26:51.970 --> 00:26:55.589 -certified buildings was around 94 % compared 00:26:55.589 --> 00:26:59.230 to only 73 % in LEED buildings. So a big gap. 00:26:59.430 --> 00:27:02.950 A big gap. The EEG is good for health, but because 00:27:02.950 --> 00:27:05.289 it has to split its focus between energy and 00:27:05.289 --> 00:27:08.750 materials and water and health, It's not the 00:27:08.750 --> 00:27:10.650 ultimate wellness experience. Okay, so we've 00:27:10.650 --> 00:27:12.269 dragged LE through the mud a little bit here. 00:27:12.349 --> 00:27:14.349 We've bashed the energy data. We've mocked the 00:27:14.349 --> 00:27:16.309 bike racks. But we have to acknowledge that the 00:27:16.309 --> 00:27:19.230 USGBC isn't deaf. They hear these criticisms. 00:27:19.349 --> 00:27:21.769 The system has evolved over time. That's only 00:27:21.769 --> 00:27:23.650 fair to say. I mean, we aren't using Windows 00:27:23.650 --> 00:27:26.609 95 anymore, and we aren't using LE version 1 00:27:26.609 --> 00:27:29.150 .0. It's gone through multiple iterations, and 00:27:29.150 --> 00:27:32.369 we are now moving into the era of bleed V5. What's 00:27:32.369 --> 00:27:34.990 the big headline for V5? Is it just more points 00:27:34.990 --> 00:27:37.609 for bike racks? No. The headline is one word. 00:27:38.590 --> 00:27:41.970 Decarbonization. The USGBC has finally realized 00:27:41.970 --> 00:27:44.970 that energy cost savings is a bad and misleading 00:27:44.970 --> 00:27:47.730 metric. They are pivoting hard to carbon. So 00:27:47.730 --> 00:27:49.890 they are finally trying to fix that whole source 00:27:49.890 --> 00:27:52.890 energy problem. Yes. The new drafts are being 00:27:52.890 --> 00:27:54.950 written to align with the goals of the Paris 00:27:54.950 --> 00:27:57.910 Agreement. They are putting a huge emphasis on 00:27:57.910 --> 00:28:00.930 operational carbon, which means looking at the 00:28:00.930 --> 00:28:03.470 actual utility bills, looking at the grid mix 00:28:03.470 --> 00:28:06.109 of the local utility. They are finally moving 00:28:06.109 --> 00:28:09.549 from... rewarding design intent to rewarding 00:28:09.549 --> 00:28:12.910 verified performance. So the participation trophy 00:28:12.910 --> 00:28:15.690 is finally becoming a performance review. That's 00:28:15.690 --> 00:28:17.869 the hope. They're also adding new categories 00:28:17.869 --> 00:28:20.390 for resilience. Can the building survive a flood 00:28:20.390 --> 00:28:23.539 or a heat wave? And equity. Does the building 00:28:23.539 --> 00:28:25.539 actually help the surrounding community? It's 00:28:25.539 --> 00:28:27.660 a much more mature, much more holistic system 00:28:27.660 --> 00:28:30.640 than that simple checklist from 2005. I want 00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:32.519 to wrap up here by looking at some specific examples. 00:28:32.640 --> 00:28:34.660 We talked about the bad ones, the gap building, 00:28:34.920 --> 00:28:37.279 the EPA disaster. Let's talk about some of the 00:28:37.279 --> 00:28:39.359 icons, the buildings that really got it right. 00:28:39.539 --> 00:28:41.259 We have to start with the Empire State Building. 00:28:41.420 --> 00:28:44.900 The King Kong Building, an icon of the 1930s. 00:28:44.920 --> 00:28:48.299 Exactly. Around 2010, the ownership decided to 00:28:48.299 --> 00:28:51.440 do a massive energy retrofit. Now, usually when 00:28:51.440 --> 00:28:52.960 people think green building, they think of some 00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:55.839 new shiny glass spaceship. But the greenest building 00:28:55.839 --> 00:28:57.680 is the one that's already built. Right, because 00:28:57.680 --> 00:28:59.799 all the carbon to make the bricks and the steel 00:28:59.799 --> 00:29:02.299 was already spent 80 years ago. The embodied 00:29:02.299 --> 00:29:05.019 carbon is sunk. But the Empire State Building 00:29:05.019 --> 00:29:09.380 was an absolute energy hog. It had 6 ,500 original 00:29:09.380 --> 00:29:13.089 single -pane, incredibly drafty windows. So what 00:29:13.089 --> 00:29:14.869 do you do? I mean, you can't just go to Home 00:29:14.869 --> 00:29:18.089 Depot and buy 6 ,500 windows for a historic landmark. 00:29:18.369 --> 00:29:20.329 No, and you can't just throw them all in a landfill 00:29:20.329 --> 00:29:22.410 either. So they did something just incredible. 00:29:22.569 --> 00:29:25.250 They built a window factory on the fifth floor 00:29:25.250 --> 00:29:27.269 of the building. They built a factory inside 00:29:27.269 --> 00:29:30.309 the skyscraper. A mini factory. They would remove 00:29:30.309 --> 00:29:32.230 the windows a few at a time, bring them up to 00:29:32.230 --> 00:29:35.029 the fifth floor, strip them down, reuse the original 00:29:35.029 --> 00:29:37.809 glass panes and frames, add a super insulating 00:29:37.809 --> 00:29:40.130 film between the panes, fill the cavity with 00:29:40.130 --> 00:29:42.950 gas. and then reinstall them. They reused 96 00:29:42.950 --> 00:29:45.509 % of the original materials. That is insanely 00:29:45.509 --> 00:29:47.849 cool. Just brilliant problem solving. It is. 00:29:47.950 --> 00:29:49.809 It cut the energy use of the building by close 00:29:49.809 --> 00:29:53.650 to 40%. The project achieved willied gold, and 00:29:53.650 --> 00:29:56.049 it proved that you don't always need high -tech 00:29:56.049 --> 00:29:58.390 gadgets. You just need really smart, common -sense 00:29:58.390 --> 00:30:01.250 engineering. What about new construction? What's 00:30:01.250 --> 00:30:04.410 the gold standard, or I guess the platinum standard, 00:30:04.609 --> 00:30:07.450 of what's possible? For me, I love the crystal 00:30:07.450 --> 00:30:10.660 in London. It's a building dedicated entirely 00:30:10.660 --> 00:30:14.000 to the topic of sustainable cities. And it achieved 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:18.039 both LEED Platinum and BREEM. Outstanding BREEM 00:30:18.039 --> 00:30:22.099 is the very strict British rival system. So it 00:30:22.099 --> 00:30:23.839 won the double crown. It's a living machine. 00:30:24.269 --> 00:30:26.250 It generates its own energy with solar panels 00:30:26.250 --> 00:30:28.690 and ground source heat pumps. It collects and 00:30:28.690 --> 00:30:31.670 recycles rainwater. It's fully automated. It 00:30:31.670 --> 00:30:34.130 is what all those computer models promise, but 00:30:34.130 --> 00:30:36.210 actually brought to life in reality. And just 00:30:36.210 --> 00:30:38.170 for the sports fans out there, I saw that stadiums 00:30:38.170 --> 00:30:40.130 are getting in on this, too. It's a huge trend. 00:30:40.650 --> 00:30:42.930 Levi's Stadium, where the 49ers play, was the 00:30:42.930 --> 00:30:46.009 first NFL stadium to get lead gold. And then 00:30:46.009 --> 00:30:48.109 U .S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, home of the 00:30:48.109 --> 00:30:51.299 Vikings, got platinum. Wow, platinum. And that's 00:30:51.299 --> 00:30:53.240 incredibly impressive because stadiums are energy 00:30:53.240 --> 00:30:54.940 nightmares. You have the massive floodlights, 00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:57.319 the giant scoreboards, and thousands of toilets 00:30:57.319 --> 00:30:59.619 all flushing at halftime. If a stadium can be 00:30:59.619 --> 00:31:01.880 green, anything can be green. That is absolutely 00:31:01.880 --> 00:31:04.619 the message. So we've arrived at the end of our 00:31:04.619 --> 00:31:06.900 deep dive. We've seen the plaque. We've analyzed 00:31:06.900 --> 00:31:10.539 the data. We've exposed the loopholes. What is 00:31:10.539 --> 00:31:14.220 the final verdict? When the listener walks into 00:31:14.220 --> 00:31:16.420 that lobby tomorrow and sees that silver plaque 00:31:16.420 --> 00:31:19.660 on the wall, what should they think? They should 00:31:19.660 --> 00:31:22.779 think with nuance. Levy is not a magic wand. 00:31:23.119 --> 00:31:25.440 A plaque does not guarantee that the building 00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:28.000 is saving the planet, especially if that building 00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:30.279 is sitting in a car -dependent suburb or if all 00:31:30.279 --> 00:31:32.400 the tenants are plugging in space heaters under 00:31:32.400 --> 00:31:34.799 their desks. It's not a guarantee of perfection. 00:31:35.119 --> 00:31:37.779 Not at all. But, and this is a really big but, 00:31:37.960 --> 00:31:41.200 it has been a transformative force. You cannot 00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:43.680 deny the levy changed the entire conversation 00:31:43.680 --> 00:31:46.140 in the construction industry. Okay. It forced 00:31:46.140 --> 00:31:49.160 a very slow... very conservative industry, to 00:31:49.160 --> 00:31:51.599 learn a whole new language. It made sustainability 00:31:51.599 --> 00:31:54.500 a boardroom topic. It pushed entire supply chains 00:31:54.500 --> 00:31:57.180 to make non -toxic paints and recycled carpets 00:31:57.180 --> 00:31:59.920 standard, not specialty items. So it raised the 00:31:59.920 --> 00:32:01.880 floor for everyone, even if the ceiling is still 00:32:01.880 --> 00:32:04.000 a little bit messy. That's a perfect way to put 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:06.079 it. It made the average building built today 00:32:06.079 --> 00:32:08.359 much better than the average building from 20 00:32:08.359 --> 00:32:11.519 years ago. And financially, the data is crystal 00:32:11.519 --> 00:32:15.250 clear. LE buildings command higher rents. and 00:32:15.250 --> 00:32:17.650 have higher occupancy rates. The market values 00:32:17.650 --> 00:32:20.170 the plaque, even if the physics are still debatable. 00:32:20.289 --> 00:32:23.750 So the plaque means we tried. And maybe more 00:32:23.750 --> 00:32:26.109 importantly, we did better than the other guy 00:32:26.109 --> 00:32:29.730 would have. It means intention. And here's the 00:32:29.730 --> 00:32:32.119 thought I want to leave you with. As we look 00:32:32.119 --> 00:32:35.640 at LED V5, and as we stare down the barrel of 00:32:35.640 --> 00:32:37.920 the climate crisis, maybe we don't have time 00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:40.119 for intention anymore. Maybe we only have time 00:32:40.119 --> 00:32:42.839 for results. We need proven performance. Should 00:32:42.839 --> 00:32:45.839 we stop awarding points for effort? And maybe 00:32:45.839 --> 00:32:48.319 more pointedly, should a building ever get a 00:32:48.319 --> 00:32:50.980 platinum plaque if it requires every single person 00:32:50.980 --> 00:32:53.599 to drive an SUV to get there? Maybe the definition 00:32:53.599 --> 00:32:55.519 of a green building shouldn't just be about the 00:32:55.519 --> 00:32:57.680 building anymore. Maybe it should be about the 00:32:57.680 --> 00:33:00.210 life it forces all of us to live. That is the 00:33:00.210 --> 00:33:02.029 uncomfortable question that the next generation 00:33:02.029 --> 00:33:04.789 of architects and planners has to answer. Something 00:33:04.789 --> 00:33:06.529 to chew on the next time you're standing there 00:33:06.529 --> 00:33:09.509 waiting for that elevator. Thanks for diving 00:33:09.509 --> 00:33:10.890 deep with us. It's always a pleasure.