Green Raters Rated

We've all heard of green-building rating systems. Acronyms like LEED are in heavy circulation among the eco-conscious crowd. But the question may have occurred to you: who's rating the raters?

Well, here's your answer. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently released a report looking at how the three major green building rating systems match up to its own criteria for what a rating system should include. The report, "Quantifying Sustainability," enumerates AIA's 16-point criteria for rating systems that it laid out in late 2005 when it adopted a sustainability position statement. Among these criteria are that the rating system must:

• Require compliance to be validated by an independent third party
• Require specific goals in the efficient use of water resources that promote application of new wastewater technologies;
• Require specific goals for significant reductions in energy use, especially nonrenewable energy sources, with enhanced performance assured through commissioning of building systems;
• Promote the use of renewable energy sources;
• Require reduced use of nonrenewable natural resources through the reuse of existing structures and materials, reductions in construction waste, promotion of recycled content materials, and use of materials independently certified as from sustainable sources;
• Require specific goals for improved indoor environmental quality through enhanced indoor air quality, thermal comfort, acoustics, daylighting, and pollutant source control and use low-emission materials and building system controls;
• Promote the development and application of innovative designs and collaborative processes intended to improve environmental performance;
• Recognize the life cycle value of a community or project in addition to construction first costs, including assessment of impact on climate change, acid rain, water pollution, resource depletion, and toxicity factors;

The report reviews three green-building rating systems: LEED-New Construction 2.2, Green Globes for New Construction and SBTool 07, the three most widely used rating systems in the U.S.

None of the three rating systems is fully in line with AIA's criteria. Here are some of the key findings:

Green Globes does not require specific goals for significant reductions in energy use. Instead, it encourages such action and awards points for doing so. The report suggests more stringent and specific requirements in the areas of energy reduction and operational performance.

SBTool07 is designed to take into account national, regional and bioclimatic differences, unlike the other two systems, which do not address all three. However, the report concludes that this rating system, like Green Globes, would be stronger if there were an increase in the number of required items versus those that are merely encouraged.

And while LEED-NC meshes with the AIA criteria of requiring a minimal level of indoor air quality, is does not require life cycle assessment data to be used as the basis for design and construction decisions. The report suggests continued developments in life cycle assessment and requirements for renewable energy or carbon reduction targets

View the full report here.

Eco Incentives

So here's a question for our readers: what's the best way to get people to reduce energy consumption at home?

Many economists think that the key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions is by imposing carbon taxes or other systems that will increase the cost of energy for consumers. But some researchers think that a further incentive is needed, something that will make people directly associate their behavior with the relevant energy costs. They've come up with some creative ideas.

For instance, behavioral scientists say that the vague knowledge that turning down the thermostat will save you money is not enough to make most people significantly decrease their home heating-energy consumption. But if the thermostat were programmed to tell you exactly how much you're spending on each setting, the effect would be much more powerful.

The effect is even more powerful when you can compare your energy consumption to the social norm. A study in California, for example, showed that when people's monthly electric bill listed the average energy consumption in the neighborhood, the people in above-average households significantly decreased their consumption. Those cuts were even deeper when the electric bill contained a smiling face on a below-average bill or a frowning face on an above-average bill. After that little nudge, the heavy users made even bigger cuts in consumption, while the light users remained frugal.

Smiley faces may do the trick, but more sophisticated indicators have been suggested. A glowing ball called the Ambient Orb, programmed to change colors as the price of electricity increases at peak periods, has been given to some utility customers in California, who reduced their usage by 40 percent when the ball glowed red in peak periods.

Another indicator, the Wattson, changes colors depending upon how much electricity a household is using and collects data that can be displayed on a website. Clive Thompson, a columnist for Wired, has suggested that people start displaying the Wattson data on their Facebook pages. Sounds like a good idea to me.