LEEDing Us Astray?
Top green-building system is in desperate need of repair

We're concerned that LEED has become expensive, slow, confusing, and unwieldy, a death march for applicants administered by a soviet-style bureaucracy that makes green building more difficult than it needs to be. The result:

* mediocre "green" buildings where certification, not environmental responsibility, is the primary goal;
* a few super-high-level eco-structures built by ultra-motivated (and wealthy) owners that stand like the Taj Mahal as beacons of impossibility;
* an explosion of LEED-accredited architects and engineers chasing lots of money but designing few buildings; and
* a discouraged cadre of professionals who want to build green, but can't afford to certify their buildings.

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