Donald Rypkema, the President of Place Economics says that LEEDS stands for “Lunatic Environmentalists Enthusiastically Demolishing”. He’s an advocate for restoring historic buildings rather than tearing them down to build new “green” construction. And that’s cool with me! According to Rypkema, renovation uses twice as much labor and half as much material as new construction. No surprise there.
reclaimedhome.com
Reuse. Rehabilitate. Restore. Architectural salvage and repurposed pieces for the home.
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In fact LEED-NC (New Construction and Major Renovation) does encourage the re-use of existing buildings. Materials and Resources credits 1.1 through 1.3 addresses the point Mr. Rypkema is trying to make.
MR Credit 1.1 earns one point for maintaining 75% of existing walls, floors and roofs.
MR Credit 1.2 earns an additional point for maintaining 95% of existing walls, floors and roofs.
MR Credit 1.3 earns one point for maintaining 50% of interior non-structural elements.
The “balanced approach” Mr. Rypkema is looking for is exactly USGBC’s LEED (no ‘S’) program.
Perfect? No way.
Balanced? Definitely.