No Guarantees

"We are building the plane as we fly it."  That's what our fearless director says about the work we do.  In my case, I feel like we are building the plane as I am learning to fly (and someone else is reading me the instruction booklet on both).

As we move forward in beginning $4.1 billion in school building projects, I'm charged with the task of ensuring that our design teams meet our lofty "green building" goals.  The question always arises, 

"If we don't achieve LEED-Silver for our project, do we get paid?"  

Well, yes:  First you have to intend to meet the goal (and I have to believe your intention) and work in good faith toward achieving the goal; second, you must meet the energy performance requirements of our goal.

How we do that and whether we are successful in certification is anybody's guess because it isn't up to us.  My answer is not particularly satisfactory to an architect looking for a guarantee. We have so many buildings in various states of disrepair, quality and age that there is no prescriptive way to create protocol for guaranteed success for our design teams.   

A person's need for an absolute guarantees implies that he or she is strongly adverse to risk.  Asking for an absolute guarantee seems to be a very subtle way of saying, "I'd like to continue business as usual, even if I know I could do better."