"Feet to the Fire"

It's all too easy for an Owner/Designer/Builder team to say, "We are following LEED without getting certified." When it then turns out the building actually will be going for certification, many aspects of the project will need to be revised. The statements about the VE process sabotaging true LEED compliance are also accurate. My experience is similar to these quoted in your article. “I then let them know that if they are serious about building green, LEED actually helps them ensure that their project teams deliver. There are so many ways to get off track and not achieve the project goals. By holding the team’s feet to the fire with LEED, I feel we are far more likely to actually achieve these goals. The idea that LEED provides a check for them seems to be eye-opening to most clients with the question.” “One argument we like to make on the value of LEED certification,” another chimes in, “is that you simply won’t get the same results without the third-party audit—like auditing a class instead of doing the papers and taking the final. The natural tendency will be to let things get lost, not have the same degree of follow-through and rigor."