Does a Green Building Really Cost More Upfront?

The Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee is one of the “greenest” buildings in the region, but has no LEED rating because certification costs were deemed too high given the non-profit’s budget. This is completely understandable for that situation, but should other added costs, such as construction and planning hinder the motivation to “go green”?
Gil Friend has a great collumn on GreenBiz this week detailing ways that up-front costs are disappearing. The ratings proceess is still costly, but aside from that – there is “essentially no correlation between greenness and cost”.