For the New Year, we'll begin by taking an in-depth look at the certification program that is changing the way America builds: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. This month, we will examine the genesis of the program. Part two will discuss how the program is organized and implemented, and part three will highlight the overall effects, benefits, etc., derived from the LEED green building certification program to the design/construction industry.
It's one of the paradoxes of the environmental movement that-from the first Earth Day, held in 1970 (considered the beginning of the modern environmental movement)-it wasn't until the mid-'90s that the built environment was to be recognized as a significant part of the environmental (a.k.a. "green") movement. The natural environment was the focus of environmental groups, activists, literature, legislation and governmental policy prior to that time. Only one environmental group was active in the area of the built environment: the Natural Resources Defense Council. In fact, it was to be an NRDC senior scientist, Rob Watson, who would be an early pioneer of the LEED program through his tenure as chair of the LEED committee of the United States Green Building Council in the spring of 1995. That's rather ironic considering that, in the United States, commercial and residential buildings account for: