The Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system will be updated following approval from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). With 46 countries and territories worldwide represented, 86 per cent voted in favour of adopting the new and improved LEED v4 program. The USGBC will unveil the LEED v4 program, including reference guides, at the Greenbuild International Conference & Expo in Philadelphia, PA from November 20 to 22.
“USGBC sets a very high bar for a rating system to be approved. The rating system must earn a significant percentage of the overall vote as well as a majority approval from each of the various LEED stakeholder groups. This ensures that rating system approval represents the full diversity of USGBC’s membership,” said Joel Ann Todd, chairman of the LEED Steering Committee.
There will be no stand-alone LEED Canada version of LEED v4, but there will be alternative compliance paths (ACPs) embedded within one global rating system, according to the U.S. Green Building Council. These ACPs will allow LEED to be more flexible and applicable for a range of building projects in Canada. The Canada Green Building Council is leading efforts through its committees to develop these ACPs, which will be introduced in mid-2014. Project teams in Canada will have the option to continue using LEED Canada v2009 through mid-2015; the same schedule for projects elsewhere to use LEED v2009.
Introduced in 2002, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a third-party certification program which ranks buildings as either certified, silver, gold or platinum. Certification level is based on sustainable site development, water efficiency, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.
USGBC is offering webinars on LEED v4 leading up to the program’s launch. For more information visit www.usgbc.org.
