LEED building complaints – are they really LEED related? - A blog by Matthew Rochte

Opportunity Sustainability℠ is a Midwest-based sustainability and corporate responsibility consulting firm specializing in green innovation and seeing opportunities where others see burdens. Matthew Rochte LEED AP, an experienced, operations-based sustain
Jul 23, 2010 1:24 AM ET

LEED building complaints – are they really LEED related?

There is a great discussion on LEED apartment building tenant complaints over on the Consilience Blog. The complaints as tenant complaints go are legitimate, but have little or nothing to do with the buildings being LEED certified, rather they have to do with cost cutting and poor design, construction, and facilities maintenance.

In summary the complaints were:

   1. Inability to control Air Conditioning to a point below 73 degrees
   2. Challenged by low flow appliance and water pressure
   3. Common areas have no Air Conditioning
   4. Appear to be too few elevators and without AC and too many solar panels
   5. Time lags in underground parking illumination due to motion sensors create safety concern .

As a landlord and manager of several non-LEED buildings and as a LEED AP, I had to throw my hat into the discussion and this is what I had to say:

Every one of the complaints listed are irrespective of the building being green or LEED certified. These complaints are a result of poor building, design, and facilities management choices of the buildings not because the building is LEED.

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