Recently at the Greenbuild Expo in Boston, Greener World Media released the 2008 Green Building Impact Report. The report is the first to answer the question, what is the environmental impact of the LEED Green Building Rating System? Remarkably, no study had ever measured the environmental improvements LEED has made to land, water, air and climate, and the productivity improvements for those who toil inside those buildings.

the report was written by Rob Watson, executive editor of GreenerBuildings.com, and president of Eco-Tech International, who served as LEED's national steering committee chairman between 1994 and 2005.

At Greenbuild, I spoke with Rob about the report, and about the state of Green Buildings.

Joel Makower: We're sitting here several yards from the floor of the Greenbuild conference and it seems quite a spectacle to me -- 30,000 or so people and I don't even know how many hundreds of exhibits. You've been at this since day one. When you look at this, what does this look like to you?

Rob Watson: It look like hope. The 150 people on a grassy knoll below the Rockies was a wonderful "kumbaya" experience, but the scale, scope, and speed of transformation that's necessary really requires this level. In fact, I'm hoping that in Phoenix we get 50,000 people because really everybody has to be a green builder now, whether it's in their personal life or whether they're building a 100 story building.

JM: So Phoenix is where the 2009 conference is gonna be. What's that reference to the 150 people in the Rockies?

RW: Well, when we were a very young organization, we had a couple of meetings at the Big Sky Resort in Big Sky, Montana, and so it was sort of the early stalwarts. And we were treated to some very special events, like Ray Anderson of Interface gave his first spear-in-the-chest speech, and that was a very moving thing to be in front of, watching this incredible man sort of bear his soul. And we went on hikes together, and it was just a very different experience. And sadly, with this number of people, we can't quite have that same outdoor experience, but I think we hold a little bit of that inside us as we walk around.

JM: That's great. So I look in the halls -- go down the aisles and there are 27 aisles, each one seeming to be a mile long. I'm sure it wasn't, but it just felt that way. And I see a tremendous number, obviously, of companies and products, but also of claims. I sort of wonder about, you know, using claims that outside of this room -- you know, things like natural, non-toxic, sustainable, green -- would probably be under attack from, say, some of your colleagues, former colleagues at the NRDC or Greenpeace or any number of other groups who are sort of looking at, you know, "How do we get beyond some of these generic claims?" Do you -- does that concern you when you look at this?

RW: Yes and no. You know, there's a little bit of the Lake Woebegone effect where, you know, we're all above average, everybody's an environmentalist, and I think the market is fairly ruthless in its discipline of false claims. And my guess is that professionals talking to each other, bad experiences publicized -- I mean this is, after all, the age of the Internet and news gets around very fast. I also expect that there will be advances in the way materials and products are evaluated, more comprehensively over more lifecycle on more factors. And as lifecycle assessment matures and becomes closer to the comprehensive analysis that we hope it to be that, you know, these kinds of lenses will be applied to products and services, and allow us to have much better information to make our decisions.

JM: So maybe you're echoing the words of -- I think it was Hunter Lovins who said -- and I'm paraphrasing -- that green-washing is good, and the more of it the better. That just means companies are engaged, and that begins a conversation that then sorts out in the marketplace about who's really good and who's not.

RW: Well, certainly -- you know, Hunter is a dear friend and I have profound respect, and I think the fact that everybody is an environmentalist is a good sign. I think that we will need to exercise skepticism and put, you know, a hard eye and a focused lens on these claims and on these products and really kick the tires and test them out in the field, and let people know, in the companies and outside, whether things are working or not.