U.S. Green Building Council upgrades LEED
Atlanta Business Chronicle
The flagship rating system for green buildings is getting a major upgrade next year to make climate change and energy efficiency even higher priorities.
The U.S. Green Building Council will soon roll out its new Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design guidelines, updated for 2009 and newly approved by the USGBC membership.
Described as some of the most significant changes to the LEED system, LEED 2009 has re-weighted certain actions, based on scientific research, in favor of increasing energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions in new and existing buildings. It also entails a new set of regional credits, which are points tailored to match environmental priorities in certain geographic areas.
The USGBC will also introduce new processes for amending its LEED standards, including a pilot period for individual credits that can be tested and incorporated on their own.
The organization had received more than 7,000 comments since May on how to update its eight-year-old, much-used green building rating system before LEED 2009 passed through its 18,000-member voting ballot last week.
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