{"id":14589,"date":"2013-07-10T05:50:03","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T05:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leedpoints.com\/?guid=7a15521601347e1ec65125ce453cf912"},"modified":"2013-07-10T05:50:03","modified_gmt":"2013-07-10T05:50:03","slug":"skanska-drops-u-s-chamber-membership-over-leedv4-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/skanska-drops-u-s-chamber-membership-over-leedv4-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Skanska drops U.S. Chamber membership over LEEDv4 battle"},"content":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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Following a year of dispute, global construction and development firm Skanska USA unabashedly announced Tuesday that it has withdrawn its membership of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce<\/a> in protest.<\/p>\n

The company denounced the Chamber’s backing of a chemical industry-led initiative to effectively ban the future use of LEED for government buildings. The initiative, linked to lobbying efforts by the chemical industry related to the Shaheen-Portman Energy Efficiency Bill<\/a> (S. 761), “threatens to halt years of progress in energy-efficient and environmentally responsible construction,” the company said in a statement.  <\/p>\n

Frequently criticized for a lack of environmental and social responsibility, the U.S. Chamber is supporting the year-old American High-Performance Building Coalition<\/a> (AHPBC), a lobbying organization that harbors the American Chemistry Council<\/a> and opposes the implementation of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEEDv4<\/a>, which encourages transparency in reporting the chemical composition of building materials. AHPBC is advocating for an amendment to S. 761 that would effectively ban the use of pro-innovation and voluntary LEED certification by the government.<\/p>\n

A subsidiary of Swedish construction giant Skanska<\/a> AB, Skanska USA reportedly spent the first week of July in discussions with the Chamber, asking leadership to reconsider its position. When talks broke down, the company quickly removed its name and its funding from Chamber membership. “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,” said Skanska USA President and CEO Mike McNally.<\/p>\n

Tuesday’s announcement, prominently featured on its web site<\/a> with the headline “Taking a Stand for Green Building and LEED,” also follows on the heels of a strongly worded June 30 commentary by McNally in the Washington Post<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Let’s be clear: What the chemical industry and its cronies want is not a new standard that will improve energy efficiency and green building programs,” McNally wrote. “What they want is a standard they can manipulate and weaken. They are putting their bottom lines first and social responsibility second.”<\/p>\n

The USGBC’s LEED program has helped grow the green building industry to where it currently contributes more than $554 billion to the U.S. economy and creates more than 7.9 million jobs annually, according to the company. Skanska’s Senior Vice President Elizabeth Heider is chair of the USGBC’s board of directors.<\/p>\n

[pagebreak]“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was created to advocate for pro-business policies that create jobs and support our economy,” McNally said. “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.”<\/p>\n

The Chamber, whose motto is “Standing Up for American Enterprise,” issued no public rebuttal to Skanska on Tuesday. Skanska USA joins a number of big companies at odds with the Chamber’s stances. Nike (NYSE: NKE), Apple (Nasdaq: APPL) and several utilities left the Chamber in late 2009 after it fought legislation that would have regulated the emission of greenhouse gases that cause climate change.<\/p>\n

Skanska has constructed hundreds of green building projects around the globe and in the United States. Skanska constructed the world’s first LEED-certified airport terminal, Logan International Airport’s Terminal A; the first LEED Gold-certified hospital, the Providence Newberg Medical Center in Oregon; and was the first company to retrofit its Empire State Building<\/a> offices to receive LEED Platinum certification. <\/p>\n

“The truth is that as long as there are companies unwilling to adapt, there will never be a true consensus standard,” McNally wrote in the Washington Post<\/em> commentary. “Some materials will always be more environmentally responsible than others, and that will affect some companies’ profits. But another separate standard for government work would put a severe halt on the progress of green building in this country, and add cost in the process.”<\/p>\n

Both Skanska employees and the general public appeared to largely applaud McNally’s leadership on the issue.<\/p>\n

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