New LEED-certified projects appear to be plateauing

Green Space on the costs of LEED:

Beedie Group executives do cost-benefit analyses on all aspects of projects. They calculated a few years ago that it would have cost $300,000 to have the CGBC certify that one of its projects, Refrigerative Supply’s building in Burnaby, meets LEED standards.

“We’ve never had a client who has wanted to incur the cost to get LEED certification when there’s many things that they can use that money for in the construction process to have a more green and energy-efficient building,” said Beth Harrington, the Beedie Group’s manager of industrial development.

Is it really that insane to think that by now we should have systems in place that financially reward green design? I’d say we’ll be closer to solving our problems when it cost you an extra $300 000 to not build green.

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