When you can and when you cannot count one material as contributing to more than one credit in the Materials and Resources category of LEED has confused me for years. Even the LEED Reference Guide doesn't lay it out clearly. So, after sorting it out for LEEDuser, I thought laying it out in a table might help.

Here's an example. Cotton insulation is typically post-industrial recycled material AND it's a rapidly renewable plant material. So LEED allows you to count the cost of that material towards both MRc4 (Recycled Content) and MRc6 (Rapidly Renewable). If it also happens to be manufactured locally, in LEED-CI you could claim it towards MRc5 (Regional Materials) as well. Three-for-one!

But if you're using salvaged timbers to earn MRc3 (Resource Reuse), you cannot also claim them as recycled materials for MRc4. Sometimes a material can count towards one credit or another — you can choose which, but you can't claim it for both.

Of course, the fact that you're allowed to count one material towards more than one credit only applies if the material actually has the characteristics that both credits require. FSC-certified wood counts for MRc7 and MRc5, but it only gets the latter point if it actually was harvested and manufactured (or, for LEED-CI, just manufactured) within a 500-mile radius of the project.

Anyone have further examples or experiences that might help clarify this situation?

If you've been working with LEED Online in the last, um, ever, you've probably noticed that it can be slow and buggy. And as the portal for certifying your LEED project, that can be a little frustrating.

Then along came LEED 2009, part of the LEED v3 update that was supposed to include a new and improved LEED Online.

Well, it turns out reality has not been so kind. The system has still be slow, credit forms have been problematic, and in many cases, submittals are being delayed, with potentially serious consequences.

I have to say, though, that while it's easy to gripe about LEED Online, USGBC, and GBCI, I've seen or heard about dozens of interactions with them via phone or email over the last few months where they were very helpful and responsive. All evidence suggests that no one wants LEED Online to be fixed more than the folks behind it.

As recent evidence of both the problems that people have been seeing, and USGBC's response, the following is currently posted at the bottom of the home page on LEED Online:

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Architectural testing concern HTL will be at GlassBuild America shooting missiles at windows again. The demonstration/demolition follows the Miami-Dade large missile protocol by shooting 2x4s at impact-resistant and non-impact-resistant windows. A press release from HTL quotes NGA Industry Events Director Susan Jacob: "There is nothing quite like the drama of a 2x4 missile shot from an air cannon at glass windows." Wish I was going!

I checked HTL's website for some footage, but was left wanting. There's a link for client videos (and there's some top name clients in there), but they all seem to be password-protected. So it was off to YouTube to find this:

Another interesting short video — less than two minutes — was shot at last year's Glassbuild conference; a reporter from e-Glass Weekly played word-association with a few exhibitors. If this small sampling is any indication, the fenestration industry does not like the NFRC at all; was optimistic (as of last year) about commercial construction; and thinks green building and LEED are the future.

LEEDuser, still in its free beta release, is already proving to be a tremendous resource. The Credit Browser, with its increasingly deep pool of information, is much more than just handy — and Strategies section is starting to reveal its potential value as well.

A new article titled Upgrade to LEED 2009? How to Choose for Your Project just went up; it's a demystification grand slam. Projects registered for LEED certification prior to June 26 can upgrade to the appropriate LEED 2009 program for free until the end of the year — but is it worth it? There are a bunch of benefits to switching, but whether or not it works to a project's benefit is entirely case by case. Just when it all couldn't get any more crazy-making, along comes something like this to shine a light right where you need it.

What are the latest updates and changes to the LEED AP program? What's the latest with CIRs (credit interpretation rulings)? How are professionals currently tackling key LEED credits?

The LEEDuser Twitter feed has only been operating for a few weeks, but it's already proven to be a great venue for green building professionals to stay up-to-date on key issues of the day, in quick bursts of 140 characters or less, per the surprisingly popular rules of Twitter, the social media phenomenon.

The LEEDuser feed is maintained by the team behind LEEDuser.com, BuildingGreen's new website that offers credit-by-credit guidance on the five commercial LEED 2009 rating systems. More on that here.

It's a great chance to share your expertise, ask burning questions, and keep up to date on all things related to LEED and green building.

• If you're already a Twitter member, please join the fun and follow LEEDuser.
We're happy to follow you, too!
• Not on Twitter? It's totally fun, and can be very useful. Check it out.
• By the way, the blog you are reading now has its own Twitter feed, @bglive.

Any college student writing a term paper on the history of the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED rating system, and criticisms of LEED over its history, now has a cheat sheet.

The motherlode of research comes courtesy of Pat Murphy of Community Solutions, according to its website, "founded in 1940 as a ... non-profit organization that educates on the benefits and values of small local community living."

In an article titled "LEEDing from Behind: The Rise and Fall of Green Building" Murphy offers a special report showing the history of LEED relative to energy performance. Actually, it's the first part of a promised three parts. In the second part, promised in June but not yet out, Murphy promises an analysis of "LEED additional building costs" and "energy performance obtained from those costs." In Part III, Murphy promises "options to the LEED rating system."

The paper helpfully breaks down the history of LEED, and lays out many significant arguments against it in a chronological framework. ("Concerns about LEED: 2005–2006," "Concerns about LEED: 2007–2008," etc.)

Murphy clearly has not been drinking the LEED Kool-aid, which leads to analysis that reads at times as if it were written by very naive space aliens:

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Editor's Note: When Matt Macko, a principal at Environmental Building Strategies, told me that he was the only energy expert in the room when the new LEED AP BD+C exam was written, I asked him to write the story of his experience for BuildingGreen.com. Here's what he told us. The details of the new LEED AP credentialing program were also announced today. You can also follow this topic on Twitter. – Tristan Roberts, LEED AP

In early February 2009 I received an email stating among other things that the GBCI (Green Building Certification Institute) was looking for volunteers to write the new LEED for Building Design & Construction (BD+C) 2009 exam.

On the flight from San Francisco to Washington for the three-day mid-week exam writing session, I reflected on my own LEED v2.2 exam experience and what value I could add. I had brutally memorized the Reference Guide like a cramming college student, had some background with green building in the residential sector and knew energy modeling from experience at my company. What I didn't know is that I would be virtually the only one there with energy-related knowledge.

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Word's been filtering out recently about LEEDuser.com, which — marked by today's press release and a notice in the current issue of Environmental Building News — has officially soft-launched in beta with partial content. Registration is free, but only for a while.

What is it? The press release explains:

Responding to the need for comprehensive help with the new LEED rating systems that's based on real-world experience, BuildingGreen, LLC, publishers of the widely respected Environmental Building News and GreenSpec Directory, have created LEEDuser with support of the U.S. Green Building Council.

This new website, at www.LEEDuser.com, provides credit-by-credit guidance for teams working on LEED certification. Included are clear descriptions of credit requirements, tips to streamline LEED submissions, online calculators, and online user forums related to specific credits. LEEDuser facilitates LEED certification for projects using the five recently launched LEED 2009 rating systems: New Construction, Core & Shell, Schools, Commercial Interiors, and Existing Buildings Operations & Maintenance.

Real Life LEED has already weighed in, noting, "If you've been a long time reader of this site you might remember that I think these guys are top-notch, and what I've seen on the site so far gives me no reason to expect anything less from LEEDuser."

From the press release:

LEEDuser is available now in beta release with free registration. It already covers the credits that users have found most challenging, and it will continue to expand throughout the summer. Beginning in October 2009 the website will be available by subscription.

For a view from deep inside the project itself, take a look at what one of its technical web developers — our own Brian Fending — wrote. Here's a snippet: "It's INSANE how good this is at delivering the required content... Impossibly awesome and without a single peer in this and many regards."

Who could be more qualified than one of the principal authors of LEED for Homes to provide insight on the best ways to make the program work?

LEED for Homes, like other rating systems, is an assessment tool. This means that while it provides some "how-to" information (at the level of individual strategies or "credits"), it doesn't offer any guidance for how to approach the design and construction of a high-performing home differently than a conventional project. Ann Edminster will offer some of that missing guidance in this webinar.

It gets better. Not only do you not have to jet off to some city to sit in some auditorium during some high-priced conference to take this in... it's free. Just sign up and it's yours for the taking on June 2, at 2:00 pm Eastern (1:00 pm Central, noon Mountain, 11:00 am Pacific), right on your computer. A gift from GreenBuildingAdvisor.com.

The presenter, Ann Edminster, is a longtime green building mover and shaker. In addition to being one of the main people who developed LEED for Homes (she was its co-chair through most of its making), she's also a past member of the LEED Steering Committee, and a member and past co-chair of the USGBC's Materials and Resources Technical Advisory Group. She co-authored Efficient Wood Use In Residential Construction: A Practical Guide to Saving Wood, Money, and Forests, has written bunches of technical papers and articles, and has been an invited speaker at dozens of regional, national, and international green building conferences over the past 15 years. She's the founding principal of the environmental design consulting firm Design AVEnues.

The long-time-coming "BSR/ASHRAE/USGBC/IESNA Standard 189.1P, Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings" is open for public review until June 15, 2009. From the forward:

"Standard 189.1 addresses site sustainability, water use efficiency, energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), and the building's impact on the atmosphere, materials and resources. This is a standard for high-performance green buildings. It is not a rating system, though it could be incorporated as the baseline in a green building rating system. It is not a design guide."

From EBN, March 2006:

"The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE), U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) announced in February 2006 that they will cosponsor the development of ASHRAE/USGBC/IESNA Standard 189P: Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings."

From EBN, December 2006:

"Work continues on ASHRAE Standard 189P, a joint project between USGBC, ASHRAE, and the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA)... the standard is intended as a way of putting minimum LEED performance into the form of a building code. Its place would likely be as an addendum to official building codes for municipalities that choose to require a basic green building standard for all new construction."

From EBN, October 2008:

"What was supposed to be a new minimum, code-enforceable standard for green buildings now faces an uncertain future. In a move that came as a surprise to its partners, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has disbanded the committee..."

From EBN, March 2009:

"ASHRAE has now reconstituted the committee with 34 voting members, including 16 from the previous group. New members include individuals representing timber, steel, utility, and commercial real estate. ASHRAE's move appears intended to insulate Standard 189 against procedural appeals from those industries, but it remains to be seen whether the larger committee with its broader array of interests can complete the development of an effective standard."