LEED Development Adjusted

At its August 19, 2001 meeting the Board of the U.S. Green Building Council voted unanimously to set a new course for updates to the LEED™ Rating System. “What we realized is that we’re overwhelmed by LEED’s popularity,” said LEED co-chair Rob Watson of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We wanted to ensure that LEED has a really solid foundation before making significant changes to the system.” The previous plan called for release of a significantly revised LEED version 3.0, in 2003; the Board has now chosen a course of incremental improvements to LEED 2.0, while delaying the release of LEED 3.0 to 2005.

The incremental improvements are to be released over the next few years as LEED 2.1, LEED 2.2, and so on. These improvements will focus on simplifying the assessment of some credits, streamlining documentation requirements, improving administration of the system, and possibly adding an option for certification prior to construction of a building, based only on its design. “In the short term, we will focus on ensuring LEED’s ease of use by the building industry,” says Watson. New credits may be incorporated gradually during this time, or be tested as suggestions for “Innovation Credits.”

With the previously scheduled release of LEED 3.0 in 2003, the Council had been planning to release specific adaptations of LEED for projects not covered by the current system, such as commercial interiors and preexisting buildings. Those “vertical market” applications of LEED are still slated for pilot testing in 2002 and release in 2003. At least initially, these will rely primarily on credits adapted from the current LEED 2.0 system.