INDEPENDENT 9/18/07 12:01 PM Page 14
SPECIAL FOCUS: INDUSTRIAL
New Perspectives
SUSTAINABLE BUILDING STANDARDS ARE BECOMING MAINSTREAM. SOME
INDUSTRIAL CONTRACTORS ARE JOINING THE MOVEMENT. By David J. Kruse
A
number of people might consider the green
building concept as fleeting in some segments of
the construction industry. Well, I think they may
be right. If people believe the green building con-
cept is fading away, they are probably right – but
for all the wrong reasons.
The design and construction of high-performance buildings
has undergone an amazing evolution in the United States, both
in scope and in speed of occurrence. For example, the U.S. Green
Building Council (USGBC), founded in 1993, developed its first
set of pilot guidelines for the design and construction of high-
performance buildings in 1998 and implemented the process in
2000. The growth in the Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) process has been exponential,
from just a few buildings registered in 2000 to well over 5,000
registered today.
Some have estimated that, by 2010, about 10 percent of all
new commercial construction starts in the United States will be
MCAA President David Kruse (back row, to the right of the center panel) with former President Bill Clinton and the other participants of the newly
announced Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program in New York on May 16.
14 ■ CONSTRUCTION TODAY ■ OCTOBER 2007
green. One can hardly open a newspaper, listen to a television
commercial or browse a Web site without being presented with
a green product, story or “seal of approval” of some sort. The con-
cept of green and sustainability has clearly permeated American
culture and has done so in breathtaking fashion.
Is Mainstream the Goal?
How is it, then, that green is dying? Simple: It is becoming main-
stream. Just as it is no longer considered extravagant to buy bot-
tled water, building green is no longer considered the sole
purview of environmentalists and college students.
Want proof? Consider our friends on the design side of mechan-
ical systems, as represented by the American Society of Heating,
Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). They
are committed to aggressively moving our society toward the
design and construction of net zero energy buildings. They will do
this through the accomplishment of two initiatives.
First, ASHRAE plans to force designers to make buildings