Do New Green Buildings “Contribute” to Global Warming?

Today, San Francisco Mayor Newsom signed new green building legislation that will substantially increase new green building and green remodeling in the city.  I was especially glad to see that the LEED Gold project highlighted during the announcement was a green remodel, as opposed to new green construction. Generally, the sexy, new green construction projects get all the glory, and I have a real problem with that. While green building and the related green building standards like LEED are focused on much more than just the global warming problem, that is the issue that rightfully has the world’s undivided attention.  The IPCC scientists clearly stated that worldwide carbon emissions must stop increasing by 2014 and greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 50-85% by 2050 OR ELSE.  A building that’s recognized with one of the highest green honors, LEED Gold, can still spit out 60-70% as much carbon gas as a new non-green, code-compliant building.  LEED-NC Version 2.2 awards Gold to projects with a score of 39 out of 69 possible points.  While there is variation amongst Gold-certified buildings, a typical project would only be about 35% more energy efficient than a non-green but code-compliant building (yielding 8 of 10 possible points in the Optimize Energy Performance section of the Energy and Atmosphere category). Basic LEED certification can be had for as little as 14% more energy efficiency.  The new San Francisco legislation uses the less stringent Green Point Rated system for residential and smaller commerical projects, and like LEED, Green Point Rating can be had for as little as 15% more energy efficiency. Unless a new green building REPLACES an old building, the new building’s emissions (albeit reduced) are ADDITIVE to our carbon footprint. I’m not anti-growth, but I think this is an important point: we have to STOP thinking of new green construction as “all good”. “In the context of global warming, new green construction is simply LESS BAD than new, non-green construction.” Of course, I’m not trying to discourage new construction from going green; we must accept the reality that new buildings will be built, and of course we need to make sure they are as green as possible, but let’s save our biggest accolades for projects that directly reduce (NOT INCREASE) our carbon footprint on the planet. If I were LEED czar, the coveted levels of Gold and Platinum would be reserved for major retrofit projects only. End of rant.