If you practice real estate law, you need to become conversant with Green Building Law. Maybe your clients not have yet become exposed to green building provisions in contracts or green building governmental regulations or incentives, but they soon will be. In addition, you may not have covered green building considerations in law school because the field is only a decade old and appellate litigation suitable for law school texts has not yet developed.

 

Your first exposure to green building requirements will probably be the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System, which is commonly known as LEED. The LEED system, which was introduced in 1998 by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), sets forth design and construction practices for site planning, reducing energy and water use, improving indoor environmental quality, and the use of materials in the construction process. The criteria for LEED certification are determined through a transparent process that utilizes committees of volunteers who are experts and practitioners in relevant fields.

 

For example, the LEED new construction rating system utilizes six major categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation and design process. Each category contains a series of goals for which points are awarded. The LEED rating system for new construction has four levels of certification: certified, silver, gold, and platinum. The first level of certification, certified, requires reaching 26 points, and the maximum number of points that can be awarded is 69. The goal is to encourage a builder, developer, or owner to incorporate green building technologies in the construction project.

 

The owner, builder, or developer submits an application to the Green Building Council that sets forth the level of compliance with the rating system. The Green Building Council provides a third-party verification of compliance and determines the level of certification, if any, that is to be awarded to the construction project. In addition to the new construction rating system, there are a variety of other rating systems for commercial interiors, residential properties, existing buildings, schools, neighborhoods, core and shell, retail establishments, and healthcare.

 

Professionals in the construction and development field, including attorneys, can become credentialed as LEED Accredited Professionals, LEED APs, through an examination that is administered by the Green Building Certification Institute. A LEED AP must demonstrate that she has a thorough understanding of green building technologies and the LEED rating system, and the LEED AP credential signifies that she has the knowledge and skills to facilitate the LEED certification process.

 

Green building provisions, such as the LEED rating system, will become increasing important in the coming years. There is little doubt that the Obama administration will focus on conservation and green policies in a manner that is substantially different from the focus of the Bush administration, and although we have experienced a reduction in energy costs, oil prices will not remain in the $40 a barrel range for the long-term. The USGBC has calculated that seventy-two percent of our electricity consumption is attributable to buildings, and that thirty to seventy percent of the carbon dioxide emissions in our urban areas are attributable to buildings.

 

Detailed information on the LEED rating system is available at its website at http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CategoryID=19. If you are interested in becoming a LEED AP, you should start with the GBCI website at http://www.gbci.org/. In a future article, we will examine some of the incentives and requirements that state and local governments are utilizing to encourage and require the construction of green buildings.