American High-Performance Buildings Coalition: making buildings better (for vinyl, treated wood and chemical companies)

What do the American Chemistry Council, the Vinyl Institute, the Vinyl Siding Institute, the Treated Wood Council, and the Adhesives and Sealants Council all have in common? They've all joined forces to create the American High-Performance Buildings Coalition. The coalition is intended to fight what they call the “arbitrary chemical restrictions” in the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED v4 rating system.

USGBC released a statement saying, “We welcome the announcement of the formation, but as Ronald Reagan once said, we will ‘trust but verify.’”

It's a pretty safe bet that the AHPBC standards will be lower than LEED's (otherwise the likes of the Vinyl Institute wouldn't be promoting it), so there is some danger that organizations looking for a quick and dirty green building certification will opt for AHPBC. Sophisticated building owners, architects and clients will know better.