WAYNESVILLE, NC — In the building industry, the question, "What does green mean?" isn''t academic — it''s critical to the bottom line, according to the Smoky Mountain News.
To help guide those who question how green is green, builders can turn to the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification system, the article stated.
According to the article, LEED is a third-party green building rating system that certifies buildings based on their merits as environmentally sustainable structures.
LEED, however, is costly: A large construction project can cost thousands of dollars, leading many to construct a LEED building but without the actual LEED certification, the article stated.
"It actually occurs a lot," said Scott Donald of Padgett and Freeman Architects in Asheville.
"They don''t want to pay for the actual certification and the energy models, and the design is pretty much the same," Donald added.
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