HCR25, which would ban the use of USGBC’s LEED v4 in Ohio, has been heard three times by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.  Because a vote could come next week, now is the time to make your voice heard!  A vote by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee could occur as early as Feb. 25!

Proponents, primarily the chemical and forestry associations, contend that the USGBC process that was used to create version 4 was neither open nor transparent and discriminates against safe building materials such as vinyl, PVC, paints and Ohio forestry products.  They argue that when measuring state energy efficiency and environmental performance, Ohio should only use green building rating systems, codes and standards developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). They say many of Ohio’s chemical and forestry-related jobs will be lost if Ohio uses v4.

Opponents, including AIA Ohio, have testified that: 

  • Banning LEED version 4 in public buildings undermines competition in the market-based economy, prevents innovation, and abandons a proven, consensus-based program that has delivered energy and water savings.
  • LEED certification offers project owners a broad set of standards to choose from to validate that their project, in its totality, delivers measurable environmental benefits. Employee health, life-cycle costs, student performance can all be improved with strategies that the LEED programs reward and which drive market innovation and improved product options.
  • LEED v4 encourages innovation in that the strategies that have been rewarded are now the “baseline” and incentives have been added to go above and beyond those.
  • LEED v4 represents the natural progression of all standards to continue to improve outcomes, stay current with technologies and recognize success.
  • Countering the charge that LEED v4 was neither open nor transparent, opponents described the multi-level committee process that included six (6) public comment periods prior to a vote of the USGBC’s 13,000 members. They noted that last fall the Government Services Agency (GSA), following an open and collaborative evaluation process spanning several years, and allowing for agency, public, and private sector input, recommended LEED v4 as one of two green building certification systems.

 

Time to contact your Senator as well as members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources.

 

If you don’t want to see LEED v4 banned in Ohio, now is the time to contact your state senator as well as all members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. 

 

 Go into as much detail as you like, however, at a minimum, ask them to vote “no” on SCR25.