Durst Goes for a Different Shade of Green, Challenges LEED

Real estate firm the Durst Organization has decided to employ its own criteria to gauge the environmental impact of its new project on West 57th Street, rather than go by LEED certification.

This decision will allow the real estate firm to innovate and not be tied down to a specific checklist.

"We found it to be a little confining. There are things we want to do that don't give us a benefit under LEED," Douglas Durst, chairman of the Durst Organization, told the Wall Street Journal.

LEED or the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is an internationally recognized certification program developed by the United States Green Building Council. It provides a framework to identify and incorporate environmental-friendly practices in design, construction, operations and maintenance of buildings.

Durst’s new structure is in a pyramid shape and expected to reach completion by 2015. It is designed by Danish firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and this is their first North American project.

Durst plans to use several innovations in the projects, which include using recycled water from a next-door buildings in the toilets and making the entire heating and cooling system centralized, the Journal reported. However, these measures are currently not accepted by LEED.

Meanwhile, Rick Fedrizzi, president and founding chairman of the USGBC, told the Journal he wasn't anticipating Durst’s decision.

"When I first heard about it, I was a little bit confused; I was a little bit shocked," he said.

LEED criteria have been at the receiving end of a lot of criticism for not developing an updated standard. Another issue raised against LEED is that it awards certification even before the building proves its energy efficiency.

“LEED certification has never depended on actual energy use, and it's not going to," a LEED critic, Henry Gifford, told NPR. "You can use as much energy as you want and report it and keep your plaque."