New, Friendlier Legal Terms for LEED Online Users

Users of LEED Online, the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC’s) Web-based LEED documentation system, are being greeted by a new “Legal Terms and Conditions” agreement when they sign in. That agreement and legal agreements associated with using LEED Online v3, registering LEED projects, and applying for LEED project certification have been revised and shortened by USGBC and the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). The revisions follow complaints that previous versions were too long, too focused on precise legal issues and not on realities of teams pursuing LEED, and too fraught with legal uncertainty.

The most obvious change to the agreements are the length—the terms of use agreement, for example, is down to four dense pages, from more than 10. Most significant, however, is the addition of an “agency form” that design team members can use on a project to show an “agency relationship” between themselves and the project owner. As USGBC explains, “The form allows the project's owner to appoint the design professional to sign the agreements only as the owner’s representative, thus relieving the design professional and his firm from obligations undertaken by the owner under the agreements.” One such obligation that design teams have been anxious about taking responsibility for is reporting energy and water usage of a completed project, as required by LEED's Minimum Program Requirement #6.

The documents have also been written in “more approachable” language, in USGBC’s words. For this, USGBC received the assistance of a copy editor and feedback from architecture firms, from the U.S. General Services Administration, and from other members of an informal USGBC legal working group.

USGBC also said that it has standardized agreements across various LEED programs and rating systems; provided more transparency in how these agreements are revised over time; further limited and better described how it may disclose project information; and provided clearer guidance regarding how revisions to the rating systems and policy documents will affect projects.

“The dialogue with our many stakeholders that has informed these revised documents is an excellent example of how the market drives the continuous improvement that has been a hallmark of LEED since its inception,” said Peter Templeton, president of GBCI. “Our goal is to continue to seek ways to remove obstacles to our mission of market transformation of the built environment.”

Gina Bocra, AIA, director of sustainability at Ennead Architects, told EBN that the agreement “looked pretty reasonable.” She said, “It appears that this is fairly standard language that one would consent to in using software or other Web-based applications.” Bocra added, “But, of course, I am sending a copy directly to our managing partner and it will be going to our legal counsel.”

GBCI directs anyone with questions about the form to its project certification and registration contact form. At press time, this link was not functioning, however.

– Tristan Roberts