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Today, Cheryl O’Connor, acting CEO of the Home Builders Association and LEED-certified green consultant, talks to The Real Story about people’s desire to “green up” their homes. Too often, a green retrofitting decision will be made based on how cool a product or service appears—with solar, wind and rainwater all looking like interesting contenders in the area of green home improvement. The trouble, according to Cheryl, is that a homeowner can choose something that sounds like it’s going to be great for energy-savings, and yet miss the real energy thieves—old sliding doors and windows, poor or missing insulation or a set-back thermostat. Not exactly cutting edge technology, but among the worst energy-wasters in a home.

In a similar vein, she talks about the problems of LEED commercial buildings when it comes to real-life performance—not just projections. How people use and operate the features within a building—even the products they use for cleaning their space—makes a tremendous difference in how the building operates as a Leader in Energy and Environmental Design. Not surprisingly, what the architects and engineers see for their buildings and how the tenants settle in and use or ignore its systems is another big disconnect for the future of green design.