Archive for April, 2011
Can Liability Cause Contractors to Turn “Green”?
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
Christopher G. Hill (@constructionlaw) is lawyer and owner of the Richmond, VA firm, The Law Office of Christopher G. Hill, PC, a LEED AP. Mr. Hill has been nominated and elected by his peers to Virginia’s Legal Elite in the Construction Law category on multiple occasions. He specializes in mechanic’s liens, contract review and consulting, occupational safety issues (VOSH and OSHA), and risk management for construction professionals. Mr. Hill authors the Construction Law Musings blog where he discusses legal and policy issues relevant to construction professionals. Additionally, Mr. Hill is active in the Associated General Contractors of Virginia and the Construction Law and Public Contracts Section of the Virginia State Bar.
First of all, thanks to Michael for the opportunity to guest post. Please check out his post at Construction Law Musings here.
Lately, there has been a lot of news in the green building world relating to law suits and other liability nightmares relating to green building. The Destiny USA debacle relating to the green bonds program and the failure of a contractor to meet its sustainable building promises is one major issue. Another is the collapse of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation HQ in Maryland. All of this sudden liability related activity in the sustainable building area of construction could lead to two possible outcomes.
The first of these outcomes is the doomsday scenario. To wit (yes I said that, I am an attorney after all), the wonderful momentum built up over the last few years will come to a screeching, and unfortunate halt. Despite my Eeyore like tendencies and related posts on the subject, this is the worst possible outcome. Sustainable building is a great idea, liability concerns aside. To stop now because of issues that have always existed, yet have just recently reared their ugly heads would be a mistake.
The second, and healthier (in many ways) outcome is a learning curve and the use of these solid examples to assure that these types of outcomes do not repeat. Smarter folks than I have been screaming from the rooftops that such outcomes could occur if not taken into consideration. The problem has always been that no concrete examples had been available until now.
With these concrete examples we can now examine and better plan for the range of outcomes in a manner that is not merely the speculation of green building attorneys and other advocates who can be written off as a group of chicken littles. My hope is that, far from derailing the entire enterprise, those of us who advocate green building will learn and plan in a manner that can make green building sustainable for the future in a relatively liability free manner.
Of course, in an uncertain world, no such assurance is possible, but we can sure try.
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