Public Comment Period Open on LEED Update Proposal

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) opened up the proposed update to the LEED green building rating system for its first public comment. The public comment period, which will close on Dec. 31, is the next step in the continuous improvement process and the ongoing development cycle of the LEED program.

“Continuous improvement of LEED is in the DNA of USGBC and its regular evolution is necessary to continue to move market transformation forward,” said Scot Horst, senior vice president of LEED, USGBC. “As green building expertise advances and practices evolves, so does LEED, providing innovative solutions to the challenges and opportunities in the building industry. LEED continues to be the catalyst for immediate and measurable improvement.”

The proposed update builds on the foundation of LEED 2009, including the alignment and weighting of credits and further advances the “bookshelf” framework where credits are applied to specific building types. In addition to the continued evolution of ideas, many of which were first captured even as LEED 2009 was being finalized, the draft of LEED that is opening for public comment places increased emphasis on integrated processes and building performance.

“Additionally, USGBC is enhancing the process we use to collect and respond to stakeholder feedback on the ideas presented in the public comment drafts of LEED,” said Horst.

Besides the usual public comment Web pages at www.usgbc.org, USGBC will also take feedback from projects testing pilot credits, use input from a moderated forum dedicated to discussing the evolution of LEED and comments from various webinars that will be held with key stakeholders. USGBC intends for this public comment process to be much more generative in nature, and expects a wide-ranging dialogue throughout the process.

Source: U.S. Green Building Council