Letters

Our office of 54 currently has five LEED-accredited architects and landscape architects. We believe there is true value in sustainability and encourage environmental stewardship in our entire team. We hope to use our knowledge and experience to help our clients achieve their own sustainable goals.

The key is education. The more people know about the principles behind LEED and "green" design, the less they will fear it.

Monica Robertson, AIA LEED, Hord Coplan Macht Inc., Baltimore, Md.

The LEED certification program does provide the project team with the best benchmarking available to analyze how "green" a building really is. It also allows the contractor to analyze what the cost impacts (both first and life cycle) might be for different levels of greenness.

As more sustainable projects are built, more green products, equipment, and materials are becoming available, which is negating the perceived cost premiums often associated with sustainable designs.

The cost impact is minimized when there is a commitment by the client early on to design and build a sustainable project. This allows the project team to thoroughly analyze, research, and price all available sustainable features that ought to be considered.

It is only a matter of time before sustainable buildings become the rule rather than the exception.

Roderick Wille, Senior Vice President, Turner Construction Co., Sacramento, Calif.

There is still too much of an "us and them" attitude from the green building groups and developers. The focus has to be both what's right for the environment and what still makes good financial sense. LEED certification is not easy to achieve. The amount of paperwork and "proving" of systems is involved and can be expensive. For this to become more of a standard the USGBC needs to promote industry involvement and needs to start certifying product lines that will streamline this process. It is headed that way now but more cooperation is needed from both sides.

Loren K. Aiton ARA, Teter Consultants LLP, Fresno, Calif.

Most architecture-related and LEED-related discussions focus on temperate climates. We work on projects in a subtropical climate. It would be good to discuss building in a hot and humid climate.

Christopher Kariher, AIA, SingerArchitects, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.