CREJ - Journal

9 / 32

May 2015 — Property Management Quarterly — Page 9
T he U.S. Green Building Council
received an earful during the
annual Greenbuild conference
in October. The current ver-
sion of LEED, often referred to
as LEED 2009, originally was sched-
uled to close for registration on June
27, 2015. This means project teams
would no longer be allowed to “sign
up” for LEED 2009 after June 27, and
they would only be able to register
for the new version – LEED v4.
However, important stakeholders
expressed concern over the registra-
tion end date, and the USGBC decid-
ed to extend the deadline. This will
allow buildings to sign up for LEED
2009 through Oct. 31, 2016 – a sizable
extension, more than one year after
the original deadline.
“When USGBC launched LEED v4,
we set out with one goal in mind
– to raise the bar in a way that chal-
lenges the building industry to reach
higher than ever before,” said Marisa
Long, USGBC. “This is our nature, and
USGBC and its members’ collective
mission. However, the market has
requested additional time to prepare
for LEED v4, so we responded. LEED
v4 is already available, and extend-
ing LEED 2009’s availability enables
USGBC to work with the broader
industry within a longer time frame
to drive meaningful and comprehen-
sive change.”
Let’s go over some lingo. Registra-
tion is the process of signing up
for LEED. There is a flat fee of $900
for member companies or $1,200
for nonmember companies. This
allows project teams to obtain access
to LEED Online. The LEED process
requires project
teams to docu-
ment performance
through this online
portal. Each strat-
egy pursued has a
corresponding form
to complete in LEED
Online. Therefore,
registration allows
a project team to
begin the work.
Once a project
team is finished
with all of the work
in LEED Online,
it can apply for
certification and
enter the review
process. All projects must be com-
pletely through the review process
(and, therefore, certified) under LEED
2009 by June 30, 2021. This is the
“sunset” date when LEED 2009 will be
completely closed. However, as with
many things relating to the USGBC
and LEED, this date is subject to
change.
Finally, LEED for Green Building
Operations & Maintenance certifica-
tions expire after five years. There-
fore, existing, occupied buildings
must go through the process again at
least once every five years to main-
tain certification.
So the deadline extension holds
several pieces of good news for build-
ing owners and managers. First, it
allows more projects to complete the
initial LEED O+M certification under
LEED 2009, and register for recertifi-
cation under the same system. The
likelihood of maintaining LEED Gold,
for example, under the same system
is much easier than maintaining it
with the heightened requirements of
the newer version of LEED.
The extension also allows project
teams time to decide between pursu-
ing LEED 2009 and LEED v4, and more
time to implement actions that will
be required for LEED v4.
LEED v4
LEED v4 raises the bar on almost
every prerequisite and credit, some-
times combining strategies that
would have obtained several points
in the past to earn only one point
in the new version. For example,
in LEED for Building Design & Con-
struction (formerly referred to as
LEED NC), the green-vehicles credit
goes from allowing project teams to
reserve 5 percent of parking spaces
for green vehicles (one LEED 2009
option) to requiring the same num-
ber of reserved spaces for green vehi-
cles plus installing electric vehicle
charging stations in an additional 2
percent of parking spaces (LEED v4).
The bicycle-facilities credit goes from
having bicycle storage at the building
and showers within 200 yards (LEED
2009) to having a bicycle network
within 200 yards of the building,
bicycle storage for 2.5 percent of peak
visitors and 5 percent of peak occu-
pants, and having on-site showers
available (LEED v4).
The restructuring of v4 has impacts
on O+M projects as well. Two com-
monly pursued LEED 2009 credits are
the building exterior and hardscape
management plan and the integrated
pest management, erosion control
and landscape management plan.
These credits now are combined into
one site-management credit. Having
one water submeter would earn one
point previously; now two submeters
are required for the point. The com-
monly pursued electronic purchases
credit has been combined with the
somewhat difficult ongoing-consum-
ables (aka office supply) purchases.
These categories also have been com-
bined in the waste management sec-
tion, eliminating the ease of earning
the “electronics recycling” point for
properties diverting less than 50 per-
cent of daily or ongoing consumables
waste in the newly combined credit.
In the indoor environmental quality
section, lighting controls now must
offer on-off-mid-level lighting con-
trol, and the high-performance clean-
ing program credit was eliminated.
However, more points are available
for the higher Energy Star scores,
ongoing commissioning, access to
quality views and indoor integrated
pest management.
Finally, the registration extension
could allow more properties to be
eligible for certification. For example,
under LEED 2009, an Energy Star
score of 69 or better is required to be
eligible for LEED O+M. Under LEED v4,
a minimum score of 75 is required.
Therefore, the extension could allow
significantly more properties to
implement the current version of
LEED now, and then have time to
implement more energy-saving mea-
sures that would increase the Energy
Star score for v4 compliance in the
future.s
Amanda
Timmons,
LEED AP
Member,
sustainable
specialist, Ampajen
Solutions LLC,
Denver
Sustainability