When Is Building Design and Construction an Ethical Issue?

With only some exceptions, every business operates in and out of a physical location. For even small businesses, constructing a building can represent a multimillion-dollar investment, often the largest single investment a company makes. For large multinational corporations, building construction can cost billions of dollars. But based on what grounds, based on what criteria, should a business design and construct its buildings?

One increasingly prominent set of standards are supported by the LEED certification program developed by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). USGBC is an independent organization of builders, designers, and architects whose mission is to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life. In 1998, the USGBC has developed a system of certifying building design and construction called LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) in 1998. LEED certification is now the industry-leading Green Building process by which environmentally sustainable standards are applied to building construction and renovation. LEED provides both the standards and the independent third-party verification to certify the environmental quality of a building.

All buildings must meet certain zoning and safety regulations, of course. For the most part, these building codes are established by local governments and typically focus on fire safety, electrical, and plumbing standards, and also include zoning standards for size and building use that is compatible with neighboring sites. LEED standards instead focus on energy usage and efficiency, sustainable and recycled resource use in construction, waste and trash minimization in use, landscaping that restores or protects local habitat, health and safety for building users, indoor air quality, wastewater treatment, and compatibility with alternative forms of transportation.

According to the USGBC, buildings in the United States account for 72 percent of U.S. electricity consumption, 39 percent of energy use, 38 percent of all carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions, and 30 percent of waste output (136 million tons annually). LEED standards aim to reduce significantly all of these expenditures.

The biggest challenge to the LEED standards involves their costs. Typical estimates suggest that meeting LEED certification standards can add 5 percent to the total project cost, an estimate that can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars to a construction project. For some businesses, this added expenditure to construction costs can be worth it for the longer-term savings in energy efficiency but, for others, the addition can seem too costly.

Other challenges focus less on the LEED standards themselves and more on a movement toward incorporating these standards into existing and mandatory governmental building codes. Critics argue that LEED standards should be left as voluntary guidelines that should be left to individual businesses to follow. Others argue that the social and environmental benefits outweigh the costs and that the standards should be mandatory. Some suggest a parallel with building regulations created by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which require all buildings to be handicapped-accessible. ADA requirements do add costs to any building project, but society has judged these costs acceptable given the social value of equal opportunity. They are simply part of the costs of doing business. So, too, evidently, we have determined that the social and environmental benefits of LEED certification should override the initial compliance costs of building to meet these standards.

Questions:

1. Is the decision to meet LEED building standards a business decision or an ethical decision? Explain? (CLO1: 8 Marks)
2. Should every new building project be required to meet LEED standards, or is this best left to individual businesses? What facts would be helpful to know before making a decision? (CLO4: 8 Marks)
3. Who are the stakeholders in this decision? (CLO1: 4 Marks)