[Great68]

I've worked on a dozen LEED projects over the years, a couple platinums (one Resi, one commercial), and a bunch of Golds in institutional buildings. Very popular over here on the island from 2008 through 2015.

Some of the requirements are absurd (like somehow trucking up wood from California is more eco-friendly just because it has an FSC certification) and the up front costs are up there and nowhere near worth it, and would likely take the life of the building to recoup. Not to mention maintenance and operation costs for the complex systems are through the roof.

It's just a big PR/marketing thing really. I absolutely hated working on those projects. Thank god the interest started to fade out. Later projects became what we call "LEED-like" which they incorporated some of the energy saving facets in their design with non of the actual certification BS.

My colleague is working on the new UVic Student Housing project, which is supposedly passive house. Should be interesting how that shakes out in the end.