The New LEED v3

With its initial introduction in 2000, the LEED green building rating system has helped change the way we approach the design, construction and operation of our buildings and infrastructure. The new and updated version is soon to be unveiled by the U.S. Green building Council and is scheduled to go into effect by January of 2009 featuring 3 major changes: 1. Customized regional credits, 2. New weighing of certification criteria and 3. Greater consistency between different types of construction.

The regionalization seeks to allow specific regions to place more emphasis on certain design criteria. For example, water conservation will be more important and worth more points in Nevada or Arizona than Florida. According to officials of the USGBC, the system of awarding points has evolved over the past eight years without any type of overall strategy and at times, without much consistency so the LEED v3 seeks to look at all categories and set them based on strategies taken to "really making the building have a significant impact on being more green." Also, the new version will provide more consistency in point allotment across different construction sites (for example, new construction Vs existing buildings, commercial sites Vs homes).

Although these changes are to standardize LEED across the country, numerous complaints have been made about it from professionals in the building industry but more especially from contractors who claim that it would eliminate the innovation credits that would be available to them. Bruce Offner, chief estimator of Springhouse based Henderson Corp. complains that the new version is still a design tool for architecture and engineering without any consideration for the job site type of work.

I say "boo-hoo" to all whinny contractors and if I had my way, there wouldn't be any credits given to them at all. The construction process for buildings seldom go smoothly all thanks to the contractor, building things you never specified, looking for that one inconsistency in the construction specifications and using that one, making me submit change order upon change order, wasting time and money and you want credit for that?

That being said, I think that the new LEED v3 will go a long way in addressing the issues not covered by the current version and hopefully help us all see the benefits of green design as energy doesn't seem like it will be any cheaper for some time to come, offshore drilling or not.