With thousands of buildings now certified the USGBC has a strong understanding of both the strengths and weaknesses of LEED. Based on input from user feedback the USGBC has decided that it is time for a major overhaul of its entire suite of LEED products. This next iteration of LEED will be titled LEED Version 3 (or LEED v3). The intent of this article is to discuss some of the anticipated changes to LEED® in addition to discussing when these changes can be expected to occur.
Improved Consistency
The LEED family of products first released for new construction projects in 1998 and now consists of 9 rating systems that address various types of building developments. The current suite of products are as follows:
•New Construction (NC)
•Existing Buildings: Operation and Maintenance (EBOM)
•Commercial Interiors (CI)
•Core and Shell (CS)
•Schools
•Retail
•Healthcare
•Homes
•Neighborhood Developments (ND)
All of the LEED products are comprised of a list of sustainable building best practices in the form of prerequisites and credits. Many of the prerequisites and credits are similar across each of the products. However, some very similar credits contain subtle differences as a result of the staggered roll out of each of the LEED products and Credit Interpretation Ruling (CIR) precedent. One of the key goals of LEED v3 is to create greater consistency between credits and prerequisites across each of the LEED products.
Credit Category Weightings
As part of the LEED v3 initiative the USGBC has re-weighted the credit categories based on life cycle impact assessment tools including the EPA’s TRACI (Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and Other Environmental Impacts). Additionally, the total number of available points has been increased from 69 to 110 allowing the number of points required to achieve each certification level (certification, silver, gold, and platinum) to be more logical (40, 50, 60, and 80 points respectively). It is also understood that the total number of points and the certification level thresholds will be consistent across all LEED products, which is not currently the case. The pie charts to the right provide the current distribution of LEED for New Construction (LEED-NC) credits and prerequisites and the intended distribution for LEED-NC v3. The LEED-NC v3 break down is based on the draft scorecard released by the USGBC earlier this year and is subject to change upon final release of LEED v3.
Predictable Development Cycles
LEED has evolved over time with revised versions and new LEED products being issued by the USGBC primarily in response to market demand, not on a predictable or predetermined timeline. As part of LEED v3 the USGBC has promised predictable development cycles. See the LEED Timeline below for a brief history of LEED’s development to date.
Regional Adaptability
LEED has received some criticism for its inflexibility in adaption to regional environmental priorities. Critics argue that the relative importance of a sustainable building best practice varies from region to region. For example in some locations the availability of water is becoming a more pressing environmental issue than emissions resulting from energy use; however, the number of points available for energy efficiency measures is constant and greater than those available for water efficiency no matter the projects location. LEED v3 intends to address regional variation by designating regional points, which it can be assumed will be suite of credits that a particular bioclimatic region can pursue.
LEED Online
LEED Online which was first introduced in 2005 provides projects teams a web-based resource to store and share LEED documentation and other related project information. Unfortunately, the current version of LEED Online is slow and is not laid out in an overly intuitive manor requiring users to complete a combination of web forms and pdf documents. Additionally, the process to join and access LEED Online has proven to be frustrating and challenging to many project teams. Part of LEED v3 will be major revisions to LEED Online, which will hopefully address these issues.
The LEED Certification Process
To achieve LEED Certification project teams are required to submit documentation to the USGBC for review and validation of prerequisite and credit achievement. To date USGBC reviews have been slow and inconsistent. To address this the USGBC has partnered with the Green Building Institute (www.greenbuildinginstitute.org) who will now administer the LEED review process. This partnership should help to improve consistency and review turn around times.
The LEED Canada Initiative
First announced at the Green Building Summit in 2008 the CaGBC is also planning a major revision to its family of products. The primary intent of the LEED Canada Initiative is to address many of the same issues as the US, but to also closer align the CaGBC with the USGBC and its suite of products and certification process. This will likely mean the roll out of a revised suite of LEED Canada products and access to LEED Online for Canadian projects.
Timeline for Implementation
Both the USGBC and CaGBC websites provide rollout schedules for LEED v3 (see right). Updates can be expected at the CaGBC National Summit event in June and at the USGBC GreenBuild conference in November or at the respective council websites www.cagbc.org and www.usgbc.org.
Conclusion:
To summarize it is expected that LEED v3 should result in the following improvements across the entire suite of LEED products:
•Improved clarity and consistency
•Re-weighted credit categories
•Predicable development cycles
•Regional adaptability
•Improvements to LEED Online and the review and certification process
Perhaps most importantly LEED v3 should allow the USGBC and CaGBC’s to continue to strive to their underlying goal to maximize market penetration of LEED while maintaining a high level of technical rigor.
