How sustainable are LEED Buildings?

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. LEED promotes sustainable, energy-efficient, and cost-saving designs for buildings.

LEEDcertificationisbuiltaround the three pillars of sustainability: people,planet,andprosperity(US Green Building Council, 2022).

LEED-certified buildings have manybenefits,andtheirinitiatives havediverted80milliontonsof wastefromlandfills.Thatnumber is expected to rise to 540 million tons of waste by 2030. While there are important benefits that comewithbuildingsbeingLEED certified, it is important to recognize the negative consequences.Propertyvaluesare known to rise when they are LEED-certified, leading to gentrification in the environmental sector. Another issue that arises from LEED certifiedbuildingsisthat implementing sustainable design inbuildingdevelopmentdoesnot guarantee an overall reduction in greenhousegasemissions.

AstudyconductedbyDickinson College shows that property values for new homes that are LEED certified are 8 percent higher than homes that are not LEED certified, adding onto the fact that energy efficient homes are already selling for 30 percent more. Consequently,theissueof neighborhood gentrification arises. Lower-income people can notaffordthesepropertieswitha rising value. Meanwhile people withhigherincomesareattracted totheseproperties,forcinglowerincome people to relocate to anotherareathatisnotinvestedin sustainable practices. A possible solutiontothisissettingupmore affordablehousingprogramsfor

Aplaqueindicatingthesilverlevelof LEEDcertification

LEED-certified residencies. Only 40 percent of LEED-certified projects have affordable housing programs (Benson, 2019). If this figure increases, then neighborhood gentrification becomeslessofaproblem.

Energy efficiency design in buildingsmustbeaccompaniedby sustainability behaviors in these buildings. Implementing sustainabledesignsisagreatwayof tackling greenhouse gas emissions, but it is not sufficient enough to solveourwasteproblems.Areport byastudentattheUniversityof

Virginia found that wealthier people who purchase LEEDcertified buildings tend to consume more energy and resources that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions than priortothebuildingbeingcertified asLEED(Breza,2020).

TheprocessofLEEDcertification is successful only when neighborhood certification is accounted for and when everyday practices from buildings and homeowners are sustainable. The great importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions through sustainable building design must not overshadow the negatives of neighborhood gentrification and overuseofresources.Onlywhenall ofthesefactorsareconsideredcan LEED certified buildings be truly sustainable.