American High-Performance Buildings Coalition Statement in Response to USGBC Announcement of Approval of LEED Version 4

For Immediate Release
07-02-2013
Contact: Scott Openshaw, (202) 249-6504
Email: Scott_Openshaw@americanchemistry.com

Washington, DC (July 2, 2013) – The American High-Performance Buildings Coalition (AHPBC) today released the following statement in response to the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) announcement of the approval of its LEED Version 4:

“We are concerned that USGBC announced the approval of LEED v4 before it has even finished reviewing the comments, objections and reasons accompanying the various negative votes submitted, many of which were on behalf of not just a single individual, but entire industries.

“We believe USGBC moved prematurely to ballot, not having addressed or meaningfully considered the numerous substantial technical comments many stakeholders submitted during the comment process. USGBC also did not publicly disclose the number and nature of negative ballot votes and reasons that it ignored them. Disregarding the sustained, serious, technical objections from important stakeholder groups – including a broad range of manufacturers and producers of green building materials, products, and technologies – is no way to reach consensus.

“As we’ve consistently stated, in order for a green building rating system to support truly environmentally friendly practices, it needs to be grounded in science, consensus and not biased. An open and inclusive process with balanced development committees and decision making; lack of dominance, undue influence or control by staff or interest groups; full and fair consideration of technical comments; decisions reached with substantial stakeholder agreement; and a real appeals process is critical to ensuring any green building rating system can effectively meet the market’s needs.

“We want to work in partnership with green building standards developers — USGBC and others — in truly open, balanced consensus-standard processes to achieve energy-efficient, resource-efficient and healthy buildings.”