Green Buildings or Greenwashing?

Posted by Julia Klaiber on October 19, 2010

A class action law suit has been filed against the U.S. Green Building Council in federal court. Led by mechanical engineer and vocal LEED critic Henry Gifford, the lawsuit alleges that the USGBC has fraudulently misrepresented energy performance of buildings certified under its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program.

While Gifford concedes that, through LEED, the USGBC has done the most to bring about broad awareness of and market demand for high performance buildings, he points to data that suggest LEED-certified buildings actually consume 29% more energy than their non-certified counterparts.

With the meteoric rise in demand for LEED certification (only 336 buildings in the country were LEED certified three years ago), good performance data has not been readily available until recently. A New York Times article hinted at concerns last year, and in August the USGBC announced a more robust data collection for its own performance reporting. 

Gifford's filing against the USGBC can be downloaded here.