Go for greener

I have been watching the debate about the proposal for a new city hall in Newport Beach and have not once seen a mention of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the United States Green Building Council’s widely adopted building standard for publicly funded buildings.

Our city’s leaders are either in the dark on this, not operating in the true public interest, or have hired a firm that is not capable of delivering a high-performance building that could meet the energy standards.

Many cities have required the energy-efficient designs in their requests for proposals across the state -- not to mention our own federal government -- for all publicly funded buildings bigger than 5,000 to 10,000 square feet in the interest of greatly reduced energy operating costs, environmental quality and liability both in and outside of the building.

To read that they are adding “environmentally friendly” features, like a few solar panels, is what is commonly referred to as “greenwashing.” I shudder to think how much money they may have already wasted marching down an uninformed path and how much that could cost taxpayers during the operation of the building over the next 30-plus years.

The state of California did an extensive study that concluded that such high-performance green buildings cost, on average, 2% more and pay that back in the first year of operation with the real paybacks accruing during the full life of the building.

Yes, the new design looks much better, but like the city of Long Beach 20 miles away, our city should demand that the building meet the widely accepted Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standard.

This is how it could qualify as environmentally friendly.

RUSH STEVENS

Newport Beach