Washington, D.C. - More than 1,200 leading businesses and organizations representing a wide array of industries across all 50 states today sent a letter asking the General Services Administration (GSA) to continue to use the LEED green building rating system to advance innovation in construction and save taxpayer dollars.

The signatories commended GSA for its leadership in improving the energy and environmental performance of federal buildings, citing the recently released sustainability and energy "scorecard" from the White House's budget office. That study showed that federal government investments in energy efficiency over the last four years are expected to save as much as $18 billion in lifecycle energy costs.

"Our nation's top private-sector leaders agree: The LEED high-performance building rating system saves businesses money and helps deliver higher profits through reduced operating costs. The same is true for LEED federal facilities, which are saving American taxpayers millions of dollars a year," said Roger Platt, Senior Vice President of Global Policy and Law, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

Signatories of the letter are architects, engineers, builders, contractors, designers, planners and product manufacturers. These include Skanska, Tishman Speyer, and Kohler Co., in addition to other high-profile business leaders. They lauded GSA's decision to mirror the private sector in the use of LEED certification to reduce operating costs, save money and eliminate waste. They also agreed that deviating from LEED would add cost to projects. The executives urged GSA to continue to use the LEED building rating system and to focus on the "usability, market acceptance and effectiveness of rating tools rather than distractions focused on a single issue."

"Support for the continued use of LEED by GSA is both broad and deep. Our more than 13,000 member companies are fully engaged in the development and use of LEED. Businesses and organizations are certifying 2 million square feet of real estate to LEED each day. Clearly there is incredible agreement on the value of LEED and green building in general," Platt said.

For a full list of signatories, or to view the letter, visit bit.ly/GSAletter.

Source: USGBC