According to the study, the way LEED certification measures adverse health impacts of building materials gives a false impression of the safety of “environmentally friendly” buildings. A building achieves LEED status based on an aggregate score, with some measurements, such as energy efficiency, weighing more towards the final score than others, like air quality.

So a building can achieve the highest LEED certification – Platinum, even if it makes no improvements in indoor air quality, the study states.

“Although the primary stated purposes of the Green Building Council are to promote both energy efficiency and human health, even the Council’s most prestigious Platinum award does little to ensure that hazardous chemicals are kept out of the certified buildings,” said John Wargo, a professor of Risk Analysis and Environmental Policy at Yale University, and the study’s lead author.

The EHHI study actually finds that more energy efficient buildings may actually increase exposure to toxic chemicals since energy conservation often requires reducing air exchange between indoors and outdoors. Very few of the tens of thousands of chemicals that may be found in a building have been federally tested for toxicity, the study said.

Rather than issuing awards of “platinum,” “gold” and so on, the Green Building Council, which administers LEED certification, should require performance within each category (health, energy, sites, neighborhoods, etc.) on a 0-100 scale, according to the study’s recommendations.

The study also recommends that more health scientists and physicians with formal medical, epidemiological and toxicological training be included on the GBC’s board of directors. Currently only one director out of 25 has such a training.

How important do you think it is for LEED to consider indoor hazardous chemicals? Should that be part of the green building code?

For building certification, you might be more familiar with the LEED certification. LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED recognizes performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

Initiated in 1999 by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Energy (DOE), the ENERGY STAR program for buildings was developed to help businesses improve energy management through recognition of energy efficiency and cost-effective measures. Much like LEED, the intent is to spur all parties involved in the design, construction and maintenance of buildings to work together to find energy solutions that are both financially beneficial yet minimize negative impact on the environment.  Offices have been eligible for ENERGY STAR certification since the program began, and since then many commercial facilities and manufacturing plants have been added to the eligibility list, including schools, hospitals, supermarkets and auto assembly plants, to name just a few.

The certification process for an ENERGY STAR certification starts with the use of Portfolio Manager, the EPA’s system helping you track and improve energy efficiency across your entire portfolio of buildings.

Portfolio Manager tracks and assesses energy and water consumption over a 12-month period and determine a building’s level of energy efficiency. The building is then rated by the EPA’s Energy Performance Rating System (EPR) which provides a simple metric to show relative performance based on a 1 to 100 scale. The building is compared to statistically representative models from the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), a national survey conducted by the DOE’s Energy Information Administration. Buildings in the upper 25th percentile are eligible for an ENERGY STAR label. The remaining step is to have the building inspected by a third-party, licensed professional engineer, who will verify the building’s energy profile and determine if it meets additional requirements that include air quality, thermal comfort and minimum lighting that meet or surpass current U.S. standards.

By the end of 2009, the number of buildings that have earned the Energy Star label were about 9,000.

Have you or do you know anybody who’s used the Energy Star certification for their building? How long did it take to get certified and how was the process?

The recommended way to clean up a broken CFL bulb is actually quite simple and safe and NOT costly:

1) Air out the room where the bulb was broken and wait a few minutes for the mercury vapor to dissipate.

2)  Put the broken bulb  into a plastic bag(use a paper towel) or gently sweep up with a dust pan and broom (DO NOT use a vacuum cleaner).

3)  Wipe down the affected area again with a damp paper towel and put the paper towel in the plastic bag.

4)  SEAL the plastic bag.

Put the bag aside in a safe place until garbage day and dispose of it as you would normally do for household hazardous waste like batteries (“AA”, etc.) according to your city’s hazardous waste disposal guidelines.  Disposing of CFL bulbs vary from city to city and can be as simple as placing on top of your recycle cart WITH A NOTE denoting that it is a broken CFL to dropping it off at a designated hazardous waste collection site.  Please check with your city’s garbage collection company for specific instructions.

In essence, CFL bulbs save money, conserve energy and are simple, safe, and not costly to clean up if the bulb is broken.  In the long run there are important cost savings and environmental advantages to using a CFL vs. incandescent light bulbs.

If you are interested in joining the campaign to help spread the word about the benefits of using CFL bulbs, go to the Onebillionbulbs web site for more information.

Together, we can “enlighten” the world…one bulb at a time!!!

Companies that “weatherize” a home would be inspecting a home and making recommendations on how to save money by conserving energy by making improvements to the home such as adding insulation, weather stripping, or installing double paned windows, making appliance recommendations, etc.

What Rick DeGolia, CEO of Green Wireless Systems and one of the panelists, mentioned that struck me was that we have a major challenge in this country to motivate, if not raise the awareness and change people’s consumption habits to conserve energy.  In other words, we need more leadership, maybe even grassroots leadership, toward the movement of energy conservation if we are to take a good swing in the fight against global warming that is rapidly approaching.

There are some really simple things that people like you and I can do at home to help conserve energy and start leading our friends, families, and neighbors to do their part and start conserving energy.  PG&E’s website has a Weatherization Checklist you can printout and use for Free. Check my previous post “Is your Energy Bill Too High?” for some of these easy to do action items.

BTW, do you know any big companies focusing on weatherization?