PAINTSQUARE BLOG

It’s time to question the U.S. Green Building Council’s approach to transforming the building industry, according to LEED Fellow Jerry Yudelson.

© iStock.com / FotografiaBasica

Is the leading green building organization failing?

He contends at its most fundamental levels it seems to be failing—and failing miserably, particularly in the U.S. He questions whether the dramatic changes that most of us agree are required for meaningful results in the green building industry will take place if the USGBC continues to be the leading national (and international) source of leadership and advocacy?

He cites the following two examples.

Using Social Media to Cover Up Lack of Progress

Yudelson is an avid Twitter user, with nearly 5,000 tweets since he started using the social media platform in 2009. He notes the USGBC’s marketing department has ramped up its social media strategy in 2016, tweeting dozens of times each week.

However, rather than providing the type of leadership and insights one might expect, more often than not, the organization republishes older material or issues “puff” releases; nothing involving thought leadership or what he believes constitutes honest reporting. The in-house “Green Building Studio” public relations team on the USGBC website shows 21 people on the roster, which could be more than the number devoted to improving LEED customer experience, he suggests.

Yudelson questions if this social media push is the result of a conscious decision to ramp up PR to cover up the lack of progress in convincing people to use the LEED system. He notes market penetration at the end of 2015 was fewer than 1 percent of U.S. nonresidential buildings (less than 4 percent if you count U.S. building area). USGBC posts and PR suggests there is a lot of momentum for green building certification, but the truth is LEED has “flat-lined” since 2012 and is not growing in the US, its most important market, Yudelson says.

Running a Money-Losing Organization

The USGBC’s 2014 Annual Report (available online) and, more importantly, the federal tax returns (called a Form 990) for 2013 and 2014, which can also be accessed online, indicate the USGBC ran a massive deficit in those past two years, the most recent for which there are public reports. 

Yet, the USGBC is now heavily promoting its CEO's new book, “Greenthink,” with the message that “profitability” is essential for “sustainability” (and vice versa). On page 13 of the 2014 Annual Report the USGBC discloses a consolidated loss of $14 million for 2013 and 2014 on continuing operations, including results from the profitable GBCI certification organization.

In the Form 990, required by the IRS to be filed by Nov. 15 each year for the preceding year, USGBC discloses a loss of $9.1 million for calendar year 2014 and, if you subtract the $34.4 million gain in 2013 from the sale of its crown jewel, the Greenbuild tradeshow, to Hanley Wood (now Informa), an $8.9 million loss in 2013. Two years, $18 million… gone. 

Moreover, the same IRS Form 990s show a decline in membership dues from about $15 million in 2012 to $10 million in 2014. The fact that USGBC member dues decreased one-third over those three years indicates further erosion of business support for the organization, one that is likely continuing as more companies find USGBC's activities irrelevant to their ongoing work in greening of design, construction and building operations, Yudelson notes.

Looking at these numbers, anyone concerned about the future of the green building movement should also be concerned about the long-term sustainability of the USGBC.

Those wishing to learn more about Yudelson’s observations may be interested in his upcoming book, “Reinventing Green Building,” to be published in June by New Society Publishers. In it, he presents five future scenarios for green building, especially certification, including an approach the USGBC could take to cut current LEED certification costs by 90 percent or more and, by so doing, dramatically expand the green building market in the next five years.

ABOUT THE THE BLOGGER Robert J. Kobet, AIA Robert J. Kobet has enjoyed a dual career as an architect and educator. For more than 35 years Kobet practiced internationally in the fields of sustainable design and development, high-performance green buildings, LEED consulting and environmental education. He is currently enjoying a working retirement that includes a position as adjunct faculty in the Kent State University College of Architecture and Environmental Design where he teaches a variety of courses based on sustainability and regenerative environmental stewardship. For more about Kobet, please visit www.bobkobet.com. SEE ALL CONTENT FROM THIS CONTRIBUTOR