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Thu March 28 2024

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Skanska quits US Chamber of Commerce over green building row

9 Jul 13 Skanska has resigned its membership of the US Chamber of Commerce in protest over the organisation’s support of an initiative that threatens progress in sustainable building.

The row concerns an energy-efficiency bill and the introduction of a new, tougher version of the LEED certification programme. Skanska said that a bill amendment that the Chamber is supporting would effectively ban the future use of LEED for government buildings and threatens to halt years of progress in energy-efficient and environmentally responsible construction.

The Chamber is supporting the American High-Performance Building Coalition (AHPBC), a lobbying organisation that opposes the implementation of the new LEEDv4, which encourages transparency in reporting the chemical composition of building materials. AHPBC is advocating an amendment to the Shaheen-Portman Energy Efficiency Bill (S. 761) which would effectively ban the use of voluntary LEED certification by the government.

The LEED programme has helped grow the green building industry to where it currently contributes more than US$554bn to the US economy and creates more than 7.9 million jobs annually, said Skanska. The programme is maintained and implemented by the independent U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) through a process engaging its nearly 13,000 member companies. USGBC membership represents a diverse mix from the construction industry, including product manufacturers, developers, property owners, architects, engineers and more. These members voted to approve the new LEEDv4 standards on July 2 with 86% consensus.

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Skanska has spent the last week in discussions with the Chamber, asking its leadership to reconsider its position and remove its support for the AHPBC’s position concerning LEED, which, according to Skanska, would significantly undermine the LEED programme, impact more than 196,000 LEED-accredited professionals, and cripple the progress of environmentally responsible construction across the country. When talks broke down, Skanska removed its name and its funding in protest of the Chamber’s decision.

“The Chamber is on the wrong side of this issue, and its support of the AHPBC is misplaced as well as misguided,” said Mike McNally, president and CEO of Skanska USA. “The US Chamber of Commerce was created to advocate for pro-business policies that create jobs and support our economy. The numbers prove that LEED and green building do just that. Because a few companies don’t like the current LEED program, they want to involve the government and create an entirely new system for government buildings. This is exactly the kind of redundancy and bureaucracy that we pay the Chamber to fight. Rather than support its members, who continually innovate to create new products that straddle the line between responsible and profitable, the Chamber has chosen to support a group of businesses who care more about protecting the status quo. Skanska can no longer lend its support to the Chamber when it does not do right by the community it purports to serve."

He added: “Skanska invites the Chamber and the AHPBC to a public discussion in any forum of the issues at stake, including LEED’s consensus-based voting process, the value of green building to the nation’s economy, and the potential health benefits of building with materials resulting from green chemistry."

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