Since 1998, more than 100,000 properties all over the world – from apartments and office throwing to hospitals, dormitories and churches – have earned a slim seal that means with three oak leaves and four letters that mean environmental sustainability: Leed.
The leadership in energy and environmental design certification managed by the non -profit US Green Building Council aims to give architects and developers the instruments to create buildings that maintain resources and make their residents healthy and happy. Builders who involve environmentally friendly elements such as solar collectors, bicycle stands, thermal insulation and efficient light bulbs can do the tenants that their home or their workplace contributes to making the world a cleaner and greener place.
According to experts, experts are not always the same bird -friendly. While the protection of birds has been a formal goal of the program since 2011, certified structures are not always immune to the collision epidemic, which in the United States alone in a lifetime over a billion bird life. Just ask Anne Lewis, a retired architect who contributed to the foundation of the rehab organization in Washington, the wildlife in the DC region. “Our volunteers walk around these buildings and there is a large insignia on the glass judgment glass, in which this building is a platinum building of Leed. And there is a dead bird directly below the insignia, ”she says. “We are crazy.”
Now the Green Building Council is approaching the end of a month-long update to the LEED code, which gives bird friendliness more weight than previous versions. However, some bird suppliers say that the latest draft is not sufficient to ensure the safety of birds, and could lead to projects that use a green veneer to gloss over a significant number of fatalities.
Bird security enters the stage
In theory, it is easy enough to get a building-speed certified. The Green Building Council offers architects and construction companies a library of credits to read the type of project that they carry out. After an applicant has met a few basic requirements, he can pursue any number of credits on offer that range from the preservation of the habitat to water efficiency and are worth a certain point value. The minimum for certification is 40 points; A building contractor who wants a more striking gold or platinum price must increase 60 or 80. The uncomplicated nature of earnings has contributed to the fact that Leed builds the most widespread system to evaluate sustainability worldwide.
The loan for bird protection, which was added as a pilot measure in 2011, was a victory for conservationists, but it was not an easy task for builders, says Christine Sheppard, program director for Glass Collisions programs for the American Bird Conservancy. To claim this, an applicant had to limit the outdoor lighting overnight, create a performance monitoring plan and develop a facade that fulfilled a strict threat threshold or completely bird-safe materials for just one point of 40 or more. Nevertheless, it became one of the most frequently used pilot loans in the library, says Sheppard.
This popularity helped the collision degree pilot loan to secure a permanent place in the Leed Library in 2022. As part of Leed's latest comprehensive update, the loan should now take a more central place in the catalog, with bird -friendly measures for new construction projects. A point that is listed under “Biodive Habitat” asks users to use bird-related glass, regardless of whether they are etched with patterns, eaten with dots or coated in UV strips, for the lower level of a building and Near other areas with high risk of strikes, strike risks, as near green roofs. The other concentrates on reducing unnecessary night light, creating birds and increasing the risk of strikes. The credits are not linked, which means that builders could earn a point for the persecution of slight reductions without tackling materials and surfaces, or vice versa.
A missed opportunity?
When the recent proposals fall in September, some collision experts found them less than a disappointment. Michael Mesure, Executive Director of the Canadian program for Fatal Light Awareness, was one of these overwhelmed activists. “I felt that it weakened a weak creditworthiness,” he says. “The result does not sufficiently lead to a reduction in bird collisions.” (Despite its US origin, Leed is popular in Canada and other countries.) In October in October in October and more than 60 collision monitors, conservationists and other supporters of bird security, which were signed in a letter to the Green Building Council, who is looking for stronger requirements , including the use of bird -friendly materials as part of all bird loans. “There are people who look at Leed and just think that it is theater,” says Travis Longcore, a UCLA -city ecologist who has contributed to facilitating the group's efforts. “And the recommendations in [the letter] Are a way to ensure that someone will not be the theater if someone gets the credits. “
“Some of these buildings that follow credits kill hundreds, if not thousands of birds.”
That is when people choose the credits. Part of the criticism's criticism is that one Point cannot give applicants enough incentive to shake out more bird -friendly glass. (A New bird-friendly credit for existing part of a separate certification that is called operations and maintenance-can be deserved without speaking.) The signatories want the bird loans to be worth at least three points and say that it should not be possible Qualification for gold or platinum certificates without measures to reduce collisions. “Some of these buildings that follow credits kill hundreds, if not thousands of birds,” says Mesure. “How can we spend a gold price for a building that doesn't even have the bird -friendly loan?”
The proponents also fear that the types of ecological elements that encourage LEED, including green roofs, courtyards and local plants, could cause more damage than benefits if they are not always combined with bird -friendly glass. “Wherever we pull birds to dangerous places, we have to take the next step and ensure the biophilic city movement promotes projects that benefit the entire ecosystems, not just people. (Beatley wrote about bird -friendly design, but is not under signatories of the letter.)
A movement gains dynamics
Although Sheppard from ABC acknowledges that the latest credits are not a panacea, she still sees it as a sensible progress. “You have to be pragmatic when you come somewhere,” she says. “It is really important that you make this feasible.” While stricter measures could be ideal, it adds, mandates and interconnected credits are usually not part of the structure of Leed. The more the catalog offers bird security, the more architects and designers are suspended, even if they do not follow the credits.
The revised bird-friendly credits were driven by “compensation of Stringenz through practical implementation”, said Karema Seliem, Associate Director for Technical Development, in a statement that was sent to an email by email. Audubon. The feedback from Conservation supports “the development of these loans”, added, “not every inquiry can be recorded on the basis of practical challenges.” The Green Building Council called for two rounds of public comments on the new code in 2024, and the final version is released later this year.
Mandatory measures by guidelines look much more tempting, even if Leed does not touch them.
The debate about Leed credits raises a broader question for those who deal with the security of bird employment: Are these voluntary measures at all in dispute? Now that the movement for bird protection buildings has attracted enough influence on the room with legislators, the mandatory measures by politics look much more tempting, even if Leed does not touch them. “We are at a point where we do not have to celebrate a platinum -leeed building -we need universal urban standards,” says Beatley.
Lewis from City Wildlife is still not a fan of dead birds outside of buildings that wear Leed's oak blade. But it is also a prime example of the changing ambitions of the movement. You and your collision monitors were tired of being blown out when they told the building owners of bird -ray rates. And from October, most new construction projects and external renovations have to be used in Washington bird -friendly materials.
“It is up to you whether you apply for the Leed credit or not,” says Lewis. “All buildings will be bird -safe.”