For better laws, and enforcement

Years ago I was active in the Minnesota Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. It was a very educational experience learning about the challenges of moving from a prospective owner's desire to a completed project that may, or may not, have also met LEED requirements for certification. As I track the multiple shootings by police and civilians these days, and the responses by "civil society," and watch what's going on in both the Minnesota legislature and the U.S. Congress, as well as the actions of the state and federal executive branches, I believe we have placed too much trust in the ability of politicians and other "leaders" to sort things out and do the right thing.

I also believe that following a process similar to getting a project constructed that meets the owner's needs and desires as well as LEED requirements should be adapted to our legislative, and, probably, executive actions. Here's why, as noted in v4 of the LEED Integrative Process:

Intent
To support high-performance, cost-effective project outcomes through an early analysis of the interrelationships among systems 

Beginning in pre-design and continuing throughout the design phases, identify and use opportunities to achieve synergies across disciplines and building systems. Use the analyses described below to inform the owner’s project requirements (OPR), basis of design (BOD), design documents, and construction documents.

From a different source, we learn that:

The Owner’s Project Requirements (OPR) document is a high-level outline of the goals and requirements that are deemed by the owner to be important for the success of the project. It summarizes the owner’s intent for the owner team, design team, construction team, and operations and maintenance staff, future renovation teams, and any other parties needing to understand the original project goals and requirements. The OPR is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all project goals and requirements and does not replace other important guiding documents like the RFP or Contract. It does contain specific expectations that will guide the development of the site and architectural designs, MEP systems, building controls, building envelope, and operating plans.

For now imagine that each legislator needed to provide a written OPR document justifying each element (section) of a bill and explaining how the legislative elements are intended to meet the purported goals of the legislation. I suggest, very strongly, we would have better laws, better compliance with those laws and more effective enforcement actions toward those who disobey such laws.

There are more steps in the LEED process that I believe should be adapted to how our laws are made. In retrospect, I thank a former state senator, later Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources for planting the seed that lead to this post when he used to ask, at about 1 am in a conference committee, "what's the problem we're trying to solve here?"

[UPDATE: Here's an example of why we need a better process. The Minnesota Legislature passed new deadly force standards for police in 2020. Why lawmakers are already looking to change them.]

On Laws

By Kahlil Gibran

Then a lawyer said, But what of our Laws,

master?

    And he answered:

    You delight in laying down laws,

    Yet you delight more in breaking them.

    Like children playing by the ocean who

build sand-towers with constancy and then

destroy them with laughter.

    But while you build your sand-towers the

ocean brings more sand to the shore,

    And when you destroy them the ocean

laughs with you.

    Verily the ocean laughs always with the

innocent.

 

    But what of those to whom life is not an

ocean, and man-made laws are not sand-

towers,

    But to whom life is a rock, and the law

a chisel with which they would carve it in

their own likeness?

    What of the cripple who hates dancers?

    What of the ox who loves his yoke and

deems the elk and deer of the forest

stray and vagrant things?

    What of the old serpent who cannot

shed his skin, and calls all others naked

and shameless?

    And of him who comes early to the

wedding-feast, and when over-fed and tired

goes his way saying that all feasts are

violation and all feasters lawbreakers?

 

    What shall I say of these save that they

too stand in the sunlight, but with their

backs to the sun?

    They see only their shadows, and their

shadows are their laws.

    And what is the sun to them but a caster

of shadows?

    And what is it to acknowledge the laws

but to stoop down and trace their shadows

upon the earth?

    But you who walk facing the sun, what

images drawn on the earth can hold you?

    You who travel with the wind, what

weather-vane shall direct your course?

    What man’s law shall bind you if you

break your yoke but upon no man's prison

door?

    What laws shall you fear if you dance

but stumble against no man’s iron chains?

    And who is he that shall bring you to

judgment if you tear off your garment yet

leave it in no man’s path?

 

    People of Orphalese, you can muffle the

drum, and you can loosen the strings of the

lyre, but who shall command the skylark

not to sing?

Photo by J. Harrington