Green Building Report

USGBC members recently approved the proposed changes for the LEED 2009 rating system, and USGBC plans to officially roll out the new rating system in March of this year. Reference guides will be available, and LEED workshops will begin in February.

The major changes included in LEED 2009 affect the four main LEED rating systems: new construction, existing buildings (operations and maintenance), commercial interiors, and core and shell. For instance, a 20 percent reduction of in-building water use will now be a perquisite for certification in three of the four rating systems (EB’s water reduction prerequisite is a bit more complicated — based on a calculation against the Uniform Plumbing Code). Previously, this had been an optional credit. All four rating systems will include an additional point in the Innovation section, increasing the total from five to six available points (in EB, the extra Innovation credit will be specifically for “Documenting Sustainable Cost Impacts”), and all four rating systems have a completely new section which offers four points for “region specific environmental priority.” The exact strategies that will earn points for those credits will be recommended by local USGBC chapters. And the titles of many of the credits have been re-worded to be more applicable to what they cover. For instance, the name of a Sustainable Sites credit in CI is being changed from “Stormwater Management: Treatment” to “Stormwater Design: Quality Control.”

Read Article
Green Building Solutions