We Have Green Buildings, Now What About Green Trucks?

A LEED-type standard for moving freight

Kelly Sweitzer, RMI

Sitting around the same table were an ex-architect, a fleet owner, an engineer, a parts supplier, an environmental expert, and a truck driver, all charged with the same task: find a way to save an industry in peril. While they all agreed on what is holding up progress, possible solutions to those barriers definitely posed a much greater challenge.

The goal of making efficiency a priority in an industry that uses a large amount of fossil fuels and accounts for approximately 28 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions could seem an impossible-that is until you consider that other industries that have done it successfully. Buildings are enormous energy consumers, requiring three-quarters of U.S. electricity just to operate. Similar to trucks, they present a great opportunity for good design and technology, to profitably transform the industry by reducing waste and increasing efficiency.

However, while efficiency improvements in heavy-duty trucking have been minimal, the concept of "green building" is now a household term. Is the trucking industry is missing something? Participants at RMI's Transformational Trucking Charrette saw a great amount of merit in exploring the successes of and increasingly widespread adoption of green building practices for potential applications to trucks. Discussion centered on the possibility of a LEED equivalent (described below) to save the trucking industry.

The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) is a non-profit group working to promote green building practices. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system encourages and accelerates the global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.

LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings' performance. A whole-system approach to sustainability, participants felt, may provide key insights in how to overcome the most important barriers facing the trucking business.

BARRIER 1: The fragmented state of the industry

Fleet owners, maintenance managers, manufacturers, truck drivers, and engineers often work in silos, without the benefit of knowing what their colleagues in another section of the industry are working on.

A diverse group of professionals that contribute the transformational process of making our built environment sustainable, including architects, real estate professionals, facility managers, engineers, interior designers, landscape architects, construction managers, banks, and government officials all use LEED. A set of best practices across the entire sector allows all players in the planning, design, and construction of a building access to education and resources.

The USGBC provides courses on LEED credentials, provides workshops, and certifies professionals to be knowledgeable practitioners of green building practices. They offer access to green building research, which gives statistics on the impact that the built environment has had on the natural environment, and the numerous benefits of building green, information on completed projects that have benefited by applying LEED, and an entire directory of projects and case studies.

BARRIER 2: Lack of access to new technologies

Many of the technologies that enhance efficiency never make it to market. No consistent testing standard, and a dearth of information and awareness have kept them in the shadows.

LEED Rating Systems are developed through an open, consensus-based process led by LEED committees. Each volunteer committee is composed of a diverse group of practitioners and experts representing a cross-section of the building and construction industry. The key element of USGBC's consensus process is the technical advisory groups that ensure scientific consistency and rigor.

Resources about new technologies, certified building components, and approved templates are made available at all stages of a project. LEED-registered project tools put many new technologies that greatly enhance a building's performance and efficiency in the hands of the right people, and planning templates ensure that the right tools are used in the right order to maximize efficiency gains.

BARRIER 3: Misaligned policy

The current policies or regulations in place vary so much from state-to-state that they are often contradictory. There is no consistent standard.

State and local governments across the country are adopting LEED for public-owned and public-funded buildings; there are LEED initiatives in federal agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Agriculture, Energy, and State.

USGBC also offers the government access to best practices, lessons learned, and other initiatives already in place across the country by showing city and regional leadership to incorporate green building into local ordinances, incentives and guidelines. The Council encourages the government to serve as an example itself, and achieve LEED standards in government buildings.

BARRIER 4: Financial uncertainty

There is a great amount of skepticism that an investment in efficiency will not pay off.

LEED provides consistent, independent, third-party verification that a building project meets the highest performance measures, and has proven the numerous environmental and financial benefits of earning certification. LEED-certified buildings have lower operating costs and increase asset value, reduce waste, conserve energy and water, provide a healthier environment for occupants, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and qualify for tax rebates, zoning allowances, and other incentives in hundreds of cities.

Most importantly a LEED certification demonstrates an owner's commitment to environmental stewardship and social responsibility. All certified projects receive a plaque, which is a nationally recognized symbol demonstrating the environmental responsibility and profitability of the building. This allows for higher public awareness, consumer influence, and lets leaders in the green building movement emerge.

So is a "trucking LEED" a possibility? I do like the sound of LEET (Leadership in energy and environmental trucking)! There is no quick fix for trucking, and LEED is by no means the final solution for any one industry-including buildings. But, if it has helped unify a lot of people and get them all moving in the same direction toward efficient and sustainable design and implementation, we should definitely take note.