LEED v4 is approved!

by Grey Lee

Photo credit: USGBC.org

Members of the USGBC accepted the next version of our flagship building rating system, LEEDv4, with 86% voting in favor. The new system will be officially launched at Greenbuild 2013 in Philadelphia. Changes to the GA/AP exam, documentation materials, and LEED Online will occur over the coming months with much timed to coordinate with Greenbuild. Our LEED Study Group program will continue to focus on fundamentals of green building and the LEED system, with information relating to v4 as that becomes available from USGBC National.  

With the approval of the new version, USGBC is soliciting entries of new projects to use the new system in a beta test of LEEDv4. If you register your project in the new system, you will benefit from hands-on support from USGBC and if your project attains Platinum, the fees could be waived.

Individuals from over 1200 USGBC Member firms joined the "consensus body" to be eligible to vote, and only 10% voted against LEEDv4 (with 4% abstentions). The USGBC benefited from gleaning comments from many voters and will be using those critical observations to improve the system as it is fine-tuned into implementation. LEEDv4 will help take the LEED brand global, simplify some aspects of project documentation, and enable the system to evaluate building design paths and products more quantitatively.

The current system of LEED, v2009, will be available for teams to register projects  with until the end of May, 2015. After 6/1/15, LEEDv4 will be the only system you can register projects with. 

If you are interested in reading more about the concerns of some of the naysayers, BuildingGreen posted a great article looking at the issue here.

We are looking forward to celebrating the first LEEDv4 registrant in Massachusetts - let us know if you are involved in a prospect!