Mining for Gold

To catch you up:
I found a house needing major renovation in December of 2008. Designed it over the winter, officially purchased it Jan 27th, 2009, began work Feb 1, moved in June. 1236 sq ft, 2 story brick. We wanted to go LEED for Homes, which was out of beta and new to the market in January 2009. So begins our journey:

While we’ve been living in the house now for about 6 months, we’re still working with the USGBC on our LEED paperwork. And by ‘working with them’ I mean ‘arguing with them’. We are down to only a few remaining points and we’re in a solid Silver category. The goal was to see how far into LEED we could get without spending any extra $$ beyond the design. Now, honestly didn’t make that 100% - we had to spend a bit of cash on LEED fees, but it’s been fairly minor. If you’re not familiar with LEED for Homes, there’s a number of self-promotional points you can get. There’s a point for putting a sign in your yard stating you’re a LEED home, there’s a point for education, there are points for other silly things (IMHO) that help LEED promote and don’t do much for the environment. At this point, I’ve managed to design and build and move into the house in ½ the time it’s taken to work on LEED. I can’t imagine going to a client and stating that the design will cost you X, and LEED for Homes will be X*2.

So, our latest debacle is LEED Credit SS 2.1: No Invasive Plants. Let me quote you the entire requirement: “No invasive plants. Introduce no invasive plant species into the landscape.” Seems pretty easy, no? We didn’t do any landscaping (beyond a plan) so I figured this pre-req was a no-brainer. Let me share my recent conversation with LEED:

LEED: You still haven’t shown documentation for SS2.1

Eddy: I haven’t performed any landscaping. Logic would assume that since there was no landscaping – not even any land disturbance, there are no invasive plants introduced into the site.

LEED: We need to see documentation that is required.
Eddy: In reading SS 2.1 it only states No Invasive Plants and doesn’t state anything about any documentation.

LEED: We can’t award the pre-req without documentation.

Eddy: The pre-req doesn’t list any documentation. It is 2 sentences long. I have no idea what to provide to prove that I didn’t do anything. Can I submit a log of spending some time on the couch in lieu of gardening?

LEED: We are requiring a list of invasive plants for your area.

Eddy: Where is that required? I don’t see it listed anywhere.

LEED: I just told you.

Eddy: via email response: http://www.easywildflowers.com/invasive.htm