A City Council bill to require all new building construction to meet strict LEED environmental standards came under withering attack Tuesday by building industry representatives and the city administration.

LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a rating system that attempts to set national standards for measuring green building practices.

The bill's opponents complained that mandating the standards by 2014 is impractical, burdensome and too difficult to enforce.

The LEED standards cover everything from water-efficient landscaping to using recyclable building materials, and could raise the cost of a project by 3 to 10 percent.

To ensure a building is LEED-certified, the city said it would have to revamp and expand its inspection process, undoubtedly at no small cost.

But these are practical, not principled, complaints.

And while the bill itself is flawed, and was set aside for now, its ambitions are not.

The LEED system contains guidelines for environmental protection that the city should adopt for both the private and public sectors.

Sustainable construction, which uses less electricity and natural resources without sacrificing comfort and usability, is a growing trend worldwide, with good reason.

The need to reduce our impact on the environment demands that each community work toward goals envisioned in the LEED standards.

And Hawai'i, with its limited resources and heavy dependence on oil, is a natural location for developing farsighted sustainable solutions.

While it may be impractical for the council and administration to simply mandate the whole LEED program for the private sector, they should use those standards to set policy and use incentives — and regulation, if necessary — to get private developers to do their part.

Because in the long run, there really is no other option.