International Projects

I second this point!

Marcus, Strange that you should mention that. If you were at Delos roll out at GreenBuild, Dave Pogue (CBRE) gave a presentation where he was very convincing that USGBC has reach saturation in most metro areas....this would tie well with you comment that the main growth is outside the USA.....but how would that fit in with ACC?...perhaps ACC already knows that selling chemicals in USA is a lost cause but that outside the USA it's a growth field....a lot like the tobacco industry.

Please let's slow down the green building saturation discussion as it is entirely not the case. The saturation argument is based on the premise that LEED certified buildings and ENERGY STAR labeled buildings are the same from a sustainability standpoint, which we all know is not reality. ENERGY STAR labeled buildings have no requirements for sustainable water, waste, purchasing, indoor environmental quality, pest control, cleaning (interior and exterior), landscaping, among many other items, thus it is misleading to consider LEED certified and ENERGY STAR labeled buildings as being synonymous.
Additionally, it should not be any surprise to the USGBC that international projects are registering at a higher pace than US projects because for most of the participating countries outside of the US LEED is still relatively new to them and they are several years (at least) behind the US when it comes to sustainable development and building operations.
As a culture we like to believe we can quickly conquer anything so that we can move on to the next newest opportunity, which is troubling in the world of sustainable construction and operations because in reality we have barely scratched the surface of opportunities in the US.

I was told by a marketing person at the USGBC that international markets where the growth market. That was about one year ago. That has obviously changed. I can state for a fact, in California the drop in LEED projects is incredible. It is a dog-eat-dog consulting world. In my opinion, the market is not coming back. Many owners are expecting LEED to be a free-added service. Free LEED only works financially for the design team for projects with very high A&E fees.

FYI - On the USGBC website today, in a post titled "Our top things to know about Greenbuild 2014 and beyond"

"LEED 2009 extension: Stemming from many conversations with our international friends, USGBC is allowing LEED users to continue registering projects under the LEED 2009 rating system until October 2016."

Seems to confirm the international theory.

I'll tell you one thing - Massachusetts is ready to raise the bar. What will cause a drop in LEED projects here is a failure to maintain a meaningful difference between LEED and standard practice.

Thanks for this perspective--it was easy to assume that USGBC was being influenced by the chemical manufacturers. It's nice to add the international perspective to keep in mind that the markets in many countries need to be drawn along at an appropriate pace. V4 takes into account the increase in code standards here in the US, while code elsewhere hasn't yet had as much of the upward the influence of LEED that the US market has had over the past bunch of years.