The DeMun Pointe “Green Building” Sham
By Herm Smith
Architect Tyler Stephan is on official Planning Commission record January 7, 2008 as stating that the DeMun Pointe project would be submitted to the US Green Building Council for 25 Bronze LEED certification points after completion. As the project got underway the DeMun Pointe marketing team for R.V. Wagner and company plastered local newspapers, bi-weekly newspapers, and other public advertisements – including signage on Clayton Road and University Way – with verbiage suggesting this building would be LEED green.
I protested this scam to the local chapter of the US Green Building Council a month ago and they forwarded my protest to the National office. You will notice that the offending language has been publicly removed.
A few notes on the actual certification process.
1) Credibility of the lead LEED-certified professional is critical.
2) It is extremely hard to get a LEED certification at any level for a conventional project retroactively.
3) The documentation requirements are stout. The certification process is no joke. For the platinum certification for the Alberici headquarters, a colleague of mine turned in notebooks of calculation documentation just for the stormwater design.
4) Any developer claiming to be designing a project eligible for LEED ND certification would have all this and much more at his fingertips and be able to describe in excruciating detail exactly how the process works.
As for our Aldermen and Plan Commission members, they continue to scam themselves and us by self-righteously advocating the trivial EnergyStar ratings as a green method. EnergyStar is a drop in the bucket of carbon-neutral environmentally friendly, engineering. The Clayton Ordinance for LEED is substandard compared to ordinances passed in Boston, Chicago and even St. Louis City.