Week 5
Pre-Session Reflection:

Individual reflections on the article "Benchmarking building performance: what can we learn from LEED?"

In the article the author is highly critical of the Green Star and LEED rating systems. He also sheds light on their limitations as well as emphasizing that their absolute implementation in the built environment is still relatively small. Just like the Green Star system, LEED is mainly used in commercial projects, and only influenced 4% of newly built up space since its conception in 1993. Out of these 4% only 6% were certified as LEED Platinum.

There are, however, several limitations with the LEED rating system:

LEED does not take into account the transport of “sustainable materials, LEED ratings are also awarded on the basis of “Design” and “as built”, but fails to take into account “in operation.” This is a significant shortcoming, as most buildings that were LEED cerittifed in the design or as built stage, do not match up to their assessment. Addtionally, there are also some loopholes, where it is possible to cheat the LEED system as some sets are easier and cheaper to achieve than others.

To address these issues, the performance and outreach of LEED needs to be improved though the state implementing legislative requirements, that would make it compulsory to achieve certain LEED ratings, or the state could offer incentives to developers, homeowners, shareholders, etc.

Post Session Reflections:

Personal Reflections on "Beyond Carbon Neutrality: Strategies for Reductive and Restorative Sustainability, Environment Design Guide"

When we think about reducing carbon emissions our approach is not sufficiently holistic. There has been a focus in reducing emissions produced by fossil fuel. However, carbon emissions in building materials, lifestyles and infrastructure has been somewhat overlooked. 

This also means that our traditional approach to lowering emissions has been that of "reductive sustainability" (reduce, re-use, recycle) , where the negative impacts have been reduced with the assumption that nature can restore, repair and recover by itself. At the same time, however, it is only common sense to understand that net positive impacts cannot be create by merely reducing current negative impacts. Thus, the article proposes the concept of "regenerative sustainability" (reduce, reuse, recycle, repair, restore) to create net positive environmental and health outcomes that could reap more ecological benefits. Overall, reduce and regenerate goes hand in hand. Reduce bad impacts when the ecosystems cannot repair themselves due to the existing damage and high stress placed on them, regenerative measures need to be  taken, to protect ecosystems and biodiversity. 

Buildings hugely impact factors of climate change due to their energy requirements not only from operation but also from their materials in the form of inherent embodied energy. Design professionals such as architects, engineers, policy makers and related professionals must work more collaboratively to improve policies and building approaches to lower carbon materials and strategies.