LEARNING GREEN

The debate about global warming is over.  All but the most resolute deniers accept that climate change is a scientific fact and that we all share a responsibility to act accordingly.  Green has acquired a secondary meaning in our vocabulary.  Not just a color, it now connotes energy efficiency and resource conservation.

Promoting the dialogue and educating our audience on matters green is an important part of WYPR's  mission.  Accordingly we will be bringing more content on this important social, political and environmental issue. This column will be a regular feature on the station's website.

I was introduced to the green movement with a self-directed crash course in the LEED building rating system.  LEED (which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) was adopted by the U.S. Green Building Council as a system to rate a building's level of energy efficiency and environmental impact.  Points are awarded for environmentally friendly design factors including site location, water use, energy efficiency, and others.  Upon construction completion, the points are added up and a qualified building will achieve a basic LEED certification or higher levels of silver, gold or platinum.

The U.S. Green Building Council provides for individuals who have achieved a certain mastery of the rating system to be certified as a "LEED Accredited Professional."  At the time I decided to pursue this last year, there were fewer than one hundred LEED AP's in the country that were also lawyers.  Did I mention that I am a lawyer?  With time on my hands and an eagerness to learn more about green (and frankly thinking that "LEED AP" would not be a bad thing on my resume), I bought the 400 page LEED Reference Guide for New Construction and Major Renovation and started studying.

The last exam that I took was the bar exam in 1977.  While I have acquired profound wisdom over the years, my brain's ability to ingest and regurgitate data McNuggets has suffered a corresponding decline. I learned that there is no factoid in the reference guide too obscure to put on the exam.  But public humiliation is a great motivator, and after four weeks of intense cramming, I managed a respectable passing score.

More important than earning the right to put "LEED AP" on my business card, my eyes were exploded open to issues and concepts of which I had before only a passing awareness.  Buildings consume nearly 70% of the electricity in this country and are responsible for 39% of the greenhouse gasses pumped into the atmosphere.  Something called "heat island effect," brought about by the color and composition of paving and building materials, increases heat in urban areas by as much as 10 degrees, which in turn increases the load on air conditioning systems.  One sixth of the electricity consumed in this country is devoted to air conditioning.  Water use can be drastically reduced by efficient (some even waterless) plumbing fixtures and use of captured rainwater.  And on and on...

These issues are fascinatingly interconnected. The LEED reference guide is a remarkable resource that not only provides the detailed technical information as to what constitutes green--everything from the flush rates to lighting power densities to air filter sizes--but places it all in a context that never loses sight of the global significance of each item.

I was frankly embarrassed as to how little of this I had previously appreciated. I now see things through an entirely different lens.  For others, the path may be easier, but for me it took the process of absorbing the LEED reference guide to get there.  But now that I have imbibed of the metaphorical Kool-aid, I am working hard to spread the joy.

John P. (Jack) Machen is a real estate attorney in the Baltimore office of DLA Piper LLP (US), a global law firm with over 3,500 lawyers in 28 countries.  In addition to his law practice, Mr. Machen is certified by the U.S. Green Building Council as a LEED Accredited Professional and provides advice to his firm and to clients on green building, green building codes, sustainability and resource conservation.