At Greenbuild in Boston last November, the U.S. Green Building Council announced it would soon be rolling out a new version of its signature LEED rating system, version 4.1.
That time is rapidly approaching. USGBC writes in a story in the upcoming March issue of Building Operating Management, that it’s almost ready to unveil the beta versions of the new rating system. The rating system won’t be a “full version change” of LEED, according to USGBC, as it was between the LEED 2009 and v4 versions. Rather, LEED v4.1 looks to continue to raise the performance thresholds and incorporate new and updated reference standards into the rating systems. As well, a goal for this new version is to simply make it easier for more users to use the rating system.
Learn: 5 Things You Need To Know about LEED v4
USGBC says it will begin the v4.1 roll-out with the Operations and Maintenance rating system, which is good news for facility managers. One of the major changes with the new O+M rating system will be to provide pathway and framework to certification with the performance score of the new Arc platform. What this means is that USGBC is essentially combining what many in the industry had seen as two disparate green “certifications” – Arc and LEED. This will also make it easier for users to maintain their certification with period and more frequent recertifications.
As well, performance and standards will be updated in O+M 4.1 – this includes both credits and prerequisites. Stuart Kaplow of the Green Building Law Update provides a much more in-depth view of the potential credit and prerequisite standards changes here.
As was the case with the lengthy roll-out for LEED v4, v4.1 will exist on a parallel track as USGBC collects comments and feedback on the new rating systems throughout 2018.
This Quick Read was submitted by Greg Zimmerman, executive editor, Building Operating Management. Read his cover story profiling Northwestern University’s vice president of facilities management, John D’Angelo.
