The US Green Building Council (USGBC) is revamping the LEED rating system this year. LEED 2012 will focus on improving the rating system’s clarity (providing more precise technical criteria) and making the system more user-friendly. Some may consider these competing notions, so i’’s quite a lofty goal to meet. There will be revisions of prerequisites and point systems. LEED 2012 is going through a third public comment period, and has a proposed launch date in October. A FAQ document developed by the USGBC highlighting the changes may be downloaded from their website.
One major proposed change is to not only to establish that the key equipment and procedures are implemented (i.e., energy meters, plans), but to ensure that performance will remain excellent in the long term. There are separate sections for Establishment and Performance. Building owners will need to perform and record recurring activities (audits, measurements of energy usage) to demonstrate performance. And the emphasis will be to ensure that LEED certified buildings are actually achieving the performance that USGBC wants them to attain, not to just “check off the box” that they made the attempt or procured the technology.
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