LEEDv4 Passes Member Vote In A Landslide
September 3, 2013
Today's tip of the day is about the passage of LEEDv4.
After all that, the vote was a landslide. Six public comment periods and more than 25,000 comments, and very vocal opinions for and against, and still more than 86 percent voted "yea" to pass LEEDv4. The vote was held during the month of June and announced last week. The new rating system will officially unveiled at Greenbuild this year, November 20-22 in Philadelphia.
You may remember last summer, USGBC announced it was delaying its "LEED 2012" rating system, ostensibly to give the market — users and manufacturers alike — a better opportunity to familiarize itself with some of the bolder changes. Much of the controversy was centered on the new Materials and Resources credits. A new organization — the American High Performance Buildings Coalition (AHPBC) — was founded by the American Chemical Council, and several other trade organization, as a direct response to these new credits.
Early this year, USGBC unexpectedly opened LEEDv4 to a sixth comment period, perhaps to gather feedback on a new option in one of the Materials and Resources credits some saw as a response to manufacturers. Tristan Roberts at LEEDUser wrote this story explaining this move in more detail. The AHPBC has been largely inactive since its founding, so perhaps this new option for the credit was enough to mollify them?
Fast-forward to June 1st of this year — when the member vote (the vote was conducted by a "consensus body" — USGBC members had to register to vote on the LEED ballot back in April) began. Whether the ballot would pass was still a matter of some speculation. But when the votes were counted, the majority was overwhelming.
So, we will have new versions of LEED this fall. But it's important to note, that to ease the transition, USGBC is offering an unprecedented two-year grace period. This means that until June 1, 2015, project teams can choose whether to use LEED 2009 or LEEDv4.
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