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supply chain

LEED v4 Delayed, Again

The U.S. Green Building Council has announced that projects will still be able to register under the current LEED 2009 through October 31, 2016.

News of the extension of LEED 2009 began circulating this week and is being heralded and widely supported as positive across the environmental industrial complex.

This is arguably the third extension of the date when projects must use the new LEED v4. The date is an extension from the close date of June 1, 2015, announced in summer 2102 when the vote on “LEED 2012” (now LEED v4) was delayed.

In USGBC’s announced 3 year cycle for updated LEED, 2015 would have been the third year and next version of the green building rating system was expected. Instead, USGBC continues to work on v4 and in particular on the v4 Materials and Resources credits.

It is important to appreciate this delay in the context of what else is going on in green building. In early 2015 the new and 2015 International Green Construction Code will be available, an updated ASHRAE 189.1 will be published, the new ICC 700 National Green Building Standard will be approved, and there will be a 2015 Enterprise Green Communities Criteria.

Recall USGBC announced in July 2013 that LEED v4 had been approved by an affirmative vote of more than 86% of those in the consensus body of members. v4 officially launched in November 2013 at the USGBC Greenbuild Conference and Expo in Philadelphia and projects have been able to register under v4 since that time.

And while there are over 57,000 commercial projects participating in LEED, comprising more than 10.5 billion square feet of construction across 50 states and 149 countries, data available from GBIG shows there are only 253 registered LEED 4v projects across all the ratings systems and only 9 certified v4 projects.

There remains uncertainty over the still pending several appeals from the vote approving LEED v4 and this extension no doubt had a lot to do with that.

A great deal of attention was garnered at Greenbuild last week by the announcement of a new USGBC Supply Chain Optimization Working Group that will strive to perfect the LEED v4 Materials and Resources credits as part of the USGBC and American Chemistry Council joint initiative. Much of the chatter at Greenbuild was that the EPDs and HPD were too far out in front of good science and that a step back was necessary. There is much speculation that it is the contemplated overhaul of the Materials and Resources credits that are driving this v4 delay.

Observers should not over-read this announcement. It is clear that LEED v4 will be a hugely positive advancement. And LEED is going to thrive.

Read the USGBC press release here.

In light of this 18 month extension, it is now necessary that developers and builders of projects planned to break ground through 2016 evaluate if that building is better registered under LEED 2009 or v4? And beginning immediately, green building industry contract documents must be modified to anticipate v4, and a rewritten and new series of Materials and Resources credits.

October 30, 2014 0 comment

EU Passes Historic Law Requiring Large Companies to Report on Sustainability

written by

The European Parliament has passed a historic law that makes it mandatory for the largest companies in Europe to include sustainability factors as an integral part of their annual financial reporting. The law, which was passed with a thumping majority vote of 599-55, will apply to publicly traded companies employing more than 500 workers.

This momentous law will require these companies to report on policies, risks and results with regard to social, environmental and human rights impact, diversity and anti-corruption policies in their annual reports. The law was first proposed in 1999 by Richard Howitt, European Parliament Rapporteur on Corporate Social Responsibility. Howitt has welcomed the vote as a major step towards “integrated reporting” by businesses across the world.

Howitt said that all the evidence points towards the fact that transparency is the best way to change business behavior. This European law will help the global economy make a leap in the transition towards a sustainable, low-carbon economy for the future. The law will encourage businesses to use recognized reporting frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines and the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Teresa Fogelberg, GRI’s deputy chief executive, said that this new law is the vital catalyst needed to usher in a new era of transparency in the largest economic region in the world. The companies that fall under the ambit of this law must not only report on issues concerning sustainability, but must also describe their business model, outcomes and risks of their policies with regard to these issues, as well as their diversity policy for management and supervisors.

Small businesses are currently exempt from this law, but because of the fact that the large companies will be required to report information on their supply chains, the ramifications of this law will reach far enough to impact businesses across the supply chains. Addressing the supply chains in the area of sustainability is the next big challenge for large companies, and this law brings EU one step closer to achieving this goal.

Article by Vikas Vij of Justmeans, appearing courtesy 3BL Media.

April 21, 2014 1 comment

Global Forest Watch Tool Allows ‘Near-Real Time’ Forest Monitoring

written by Yale Environment 360

A new online tool called Global Forest Watch employs a trove of high-resolution NASA satellite imagery and large amounts of computing power to help governments, conservation organizations, and concerned citizens monitor deforestation in “near-real time.”

Organized by the World Resources Institute (WRI),

February 21, 2014 0 comment

In Some Measure, Climate Change Is Self-Correcting

written by Walter Wang

Here’s an article from the New York Times that makes an important point: as industry becomes increasingly aware that climate change is cutting into its bottom line, it takes action – and that action tends to (though does not always) militate in the direction of more eco-friendly business practices.

January 27, 2014 1 comment

Soft Costs Account for Majority of Installation Costs for Solar

written by Walter Wang

According to a new report released by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), soft costs accounted for 63.5% of total costs of residential solar installations, 56.7% for small commercial systems ( < 250kW) and 52% for large commercial systems ( ≥ 250kW) in 2012. The report, entitled, Benchmarking Non-Hardware

December 3, 2013 0 comment

New Standards to Bring Clarity to Sustainable Purchasing

written by Walter Wang

Today the demand for information about a company’s environment, social and governance (ESG) performance extends beyond its gates to the risk profile and performance of its supply chain as well. Many suppliers, however, are ill-equipped to respond to the barrage of inquires. To learn more about how this information pipeline is changing

November 26, 2013 0 comment

Tech Corps Lead the Way with New Sustainable Sourcing Strategies

written by Walter Wang

Tantalum and Section 1052: these two very obscure terms are getting a lot of attention from over 6,000 U.S. and global companies these days, especially from those in the electronics sector. Section 1052 is the clause of the Dodd-Frank Act that requires the SEC to issue disclosure and audit requirements for publicly traded companies that manufacture products containing

April 18, 2013 0 comment

Oxfam Ranks Food Giants on Sourcing and Environmental Policies

written by Yale Environment 360

The group Oxfam has published an online scorecard assessing the agricultural sourcing of the world’s biggest food and beverage companies, rating them on factors that include water resource management, climate awareness, and transparency.

Using publicly available information, the “Behind the

February 28, 2013 0 comment

Food Gives Us Energy, But It Takes a Lot of Energy to Produce It

written by Walter Wang

In a world where billions of people go hungry every day, the very idea that a good chunk of our global food production goes to waste sounds outrageous. But this is what happens. The problem is so serious that it has prompted the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to launch a campaign to reduce food

February 27, 2013 1 comment

The Biggest Missed Opportunity in Corporate Strategy? Sustainability

written by Walter Wang

Articles on corporate strategy from traditional sources—that is, from the major consulting and accounting firms—offer plenty of valuable advice on everything from organizational design to reaching new markets to creating innovative products. Unfortunately, they usually miss a major factor that can make or break a corporate strategy: sustainability.

January 30, 2013 0 comment

Supply Chain Carbon Management: From Disclosure to Better Performance

written by Walter Wang

A company’s supply chain is one of its top levers for addressing climate change. However, as the Carbon Disclosure Project’s latest supply chain report shows, it is challenging in practice to reduce supplier greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According to the report, which describes the actions of more than 2,300 suppliers, there remains a significant gap in efforts to reduce GHG

January 28, 2013 0 comment

Business Sustainability: What is the Lean of It?

written by Walter Wang

Lean concepts popularized the supply chain and took procurement and operations to a new level of supply chain management understanding. Characterized by the efficient movement of materials with minimal work in process and inventory, these integrated process flows were dependent on aligned supplier/customer incentives. But in 2008 when times became tough and

January 18, 2013 0 comment

Contemplating the Triple Bottom Line

written by Walter Wang

A reader sent me this article on the metrics we need to determine how “green” certain of our actions are. Specifically, how do we measure our success at contributing to the “triple bottom line,” where investments pay returns financially, socially, and environmentally?

Yes, it would be terrific, for example, if a business had

October 11, 2012 0 comment

Actions of Timberland: Being A Socially Responsible Company

written by Walter Wang

Timberland is emerging as a leading model of a socially responsible company as it demonstrates what it is doing to help provide a better quality of life for the children whose parents work in its factories. One of the impacts of supply chains like Timberland’s is that children are separated from their parents for long stretches of time and distance. Besides the

July 31, 2012 0 comment

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