On EBN's LEED Coverage

On EBN’s LEED Coverage

The U.S. Green Building Council would like to thank

Environmental Building News for an excellent article in the June issue on the development and content of LEED™ Green Building Rating System (EBN

Vol. 9, No. 6). We are extremely excited by the market response we have seen and believe that LEED is, and will remain, the benchmark for environmental building design in the United States for the foreseeable future.

We did, however, wish to point out a couple of inaccuracies in the section on the ozone depletion credit. First, we don’t understand how this credit conveys a market advantage exclusive to Carrier, when Trane, York and McQuay all have product lines that use HFC and other zero ODP (ozone depletion potential) refrigerants. Second, the decision to maintain this credit in the face of the controversy it has generated was made by the USGBC Board and not the LEED Steering Committee.

Thank you for continuing to provide top-notch coverage of green building issues.

Steven Winter, Board Chairman

Christine Ervin, President & CEO

U.S. Green Building Council

Washington, D.C.

Editor’s reply:

Thank you for your comments. We mentioned Carrier because that company has been most active in the promotion of ozone-safe HFC-based chillers, but we agree that it was inappropriate to single out Carrier. Please accept our apologies.

We also owe an apology to Lynn Barker (formerly Lynn King!) for confusing her married and maiden names in the same article.