The U. S. Green Building Council announced on November 18, 2008 that, in a balloting among its members, LEED 2009 was approved.

In excess of 4.2 billion square feet of Green building projects, comprising over 15,000 individual buildings, have registered for LEED certification as of November 1, 2008. Even in a year that has been marked by economic uncertainty, an additional $464 million worth of construction is registering for LEED certification every business day.

Against that backdrop of hyper-growth and of all but being a victim of its own success, it should not be surprising that the USGBC is ‘improving’ its system for third party certification of a building as green.

The LEED Back Story

USGBC is a not for profit organization with more than 16,700 members whose vision is a sustainable built environment within a generation.

LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the USGBC’s green building certification system.

LEED was designed to guide and distinguish high performance green buildings that are more resource efficient and environmentally responsible, have lower operating costs and increased asset values, and enhance occupant comfort and health.

LEED is a performance oriented rating system where building projects earn points for satisfying criterion addressing specific environmental impacts inherent in the design, construction, and operation of a building. The LEED certification system is organized into six categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality and Innovation & Design.

Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels of certification are awarded based upon the total number of points earned. LEED can be applied to all building types, including New Construction (including major renovation), Core and Shell, Commercial Interiors, Existing Buildings, and more.

LEED 2009

In an effort to address the almost overwhelming success of LEED and to evolve technically, the approval of LEED 2009 was the culmination of a multi year collaborative process balancing the dynamic tension between pursuit of environmental excellence and the business realities of the building industry. When a second public comment period on LEED 2009 closed on September 2, 2008, almost 7,000 comments had been offered.

A 30 day ballot period closed on November 14, 2008, with two thirds affirmative votes required to adopt this new certification program. It was four days later, at the industry’s popular Greenbuild International Conference, with more than 30,000 people in attendance, that the affirmative result of the balloting was announced.

The approved LEED 2009 is not a wholesale overhaul, but rather a refinement and credit realignment of the existing LEED program.

In the parlance of the USGBC, LEED 2009 is part of LEED Version 3 (v3). LEED 2009 refers to the actual rating system. LEED 2009, coupled with the expanded third party certification program and the significant upgrade to LEED Online, make up the multi faceted initiative known as LEED v3. updating the new rating system.

LEED 2009 will incorporate the rating systems for New Construction, Core and Shell, Commercial Interiors, Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance, and Schools. LEED for Healthcare and Retail are expected to be incorporated later in 2009. LEED 2009 is only for commercial building applications, and as such, LEED for Homes and LEED for Neighborhood Design are not currently scheduled to be incorporated.

The number of available points has risen from 69 under LEED v2.2 to 110 (actually a 100 point scale plus 10 bonus points) under LEED 2009. More points are now needed to reach each level of certification. Reaching LEED Certified will now be 40 points or more (versus 26 points under v2.2), Silver is 50 points (versus the prior 33 points), Gold is 60 (versus 39 points) and Platinum is 80 points (versus 52 points). As detailed below, the addition of the 10 bonus points for “Regionalization” is a key new feature.

The overarching goal for the point realignment of LEED 2009 is to ensure that future buildings certified under its criteria are even greener than those approved to date.

Re-Weighting And Credit Alignment

The scientifically grounded re-weighting is based on the list of environmental and human health impact categories from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. All the impacts were weighted against a prototype 135,000 square foot office building operated nine to five, five days per week, with 540 full time employees, in a location with moderate heating and cooling loads, with construction and materials amortized over a 50 year lifecycle.

In LEED 2009 the highest weightings are given to building practices that improve energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions, to align with the USGBC’s goal of climate change mitigation.

Specifically, the weighting of credits has shifted now with a greater emphasis on energy use (35% of available points) and a reduced emphasis on indoor environmental quality (down from 23% of all points to 15%).

To effect this shift, the Sustainable Sites credits for Development Density & Community Connectivity and for Alternative Transportation, Public Transportation Access are now worth a combined 11 points, versus 2 points under LEED v2.2. This greatly advantages urban projects; although this change is not as dramatic as it appears because each point in the new system is only worth about 70% as much as in the old when there are now 100 points.

Among a series of revisions made to the draft new system, as a result of the public period, most of which were modest, is that a credit for Development Density & Community Connectivity is more easily attained because if the building “is mixed use, [the building itself] .. may be considered one of the ten basic services that are required to be located within ½ mile, as long as the service is open to the public.”

Two Major Changes

While for the most part, the other point refinements in LEED 2009 are modest, many of which serve to making the several different LEED rating systems be internally consistent with each other, two major changes have been added to the LEED 2009 credit and prerequisite language: One credit that has changed significantly is that a 20% Water Use Reduction is now WE Prerequisite 1, where that same reduction was simply a single point under LEED v2.2, it is now required. Many manufacturers are producing low-flow fixtures such that what was innovative a few years ago is now easily attained with a WaterSense certified fixture. Extra point thresholds are now 30% and 40% water reductions (now worth two points a piece).

The second major change is the reweighting described above optimizing energy efficiency and system performance. What had been two available points under the prior EAc1 has been changed to a prerequisite and updated to ASHRAE 90.1-2007 standards. That is a project must as a prerequisite demonstrate an improvement in the proposed building energy performance rating compared to the baseline ASHRAE standard (by way of example, a 10% improvement for a new building or a 5% improvement for an existing building renovation), by use of an approved whole building simulation rating method. Demonstrating a percentage improvement in the proposed building energy performance rating above the prerequisite can now earn between 1 and 19 points (increased from the prior 1 to 10 points).

Regionalization

The addition of the 10 bonus points for “Regionalization” is a key new feature that recognizes regional environmental priorities. By way of example, emphasizing water use reduction in the dessert Southwest. An applicant may select bonus points from a list, still be finalized, of eligible credits based upon a building’s location (that will be sub-region specific to the building address Zip code).

To provide an incentive for the achievement of credits that address geographic specific environmental priorities, the New RP Credit 1 provides that not more than four regional credits may be earned from the listing of six possible credits that are rating system specific.

Regional Councils and Chapters are collaborating with USGBC to compile eligible credits. A draft suggests that regional credits for EB projects in the Baltimore area may include: SS 4.3 50% reduction in commuting, SS 5 protect or restore habitat, SS 6 stormwater quantity, WE 2.5 30% reduction in water use, WE 4.2 50% nonpotable makeup water, and EA 4.1 renewable energy. The database of regional points will be available on the USGBC website.

These regional credits will be counted in the same way as LEED Innovation & Design points and are not included in the certification threshold calculations (i.e., they are not ‘base’ points upon which Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum thresholds are established).

Recognizing that new technical advancements in Green building are happening almost faster than they can be recognized, five points are available for Innovation & Design Process (rather than four points previously) to promote new ideas and alternative methods for improving buildings. Not more than three Exemplary Performance credits can be awarded within this category.

Implementation

LEED 2009 will be launched in February 2009 and officially “goes live” on April 27, 2009 following the release that month of three new consolidated electronic and hard copy reference guides. A nationwide roll-out of workshops, online course and webinars to support the release begins in May 2009.

The first submittals of LEED 2009 projects will be accepted on April 27, 2009. Submittals may be made utilizing the new LEED Online v3 streamlined process. And existing projects will have the option to upgrade to LEED 2009 until October 24, 2009, or they can continue to use the version of LEED under which they registered.

New projects will be required to register for LEED 2009 as of June 26, 2009.

LEED 2009 scorecards and redlined rating systems for New Construction, Core and Shell, Commercial Interiors, and Existing Buildings: O&M, are now available and can be accessed at www.usgbc.org. The documents should be reviewed by anyone with a Green building in the planning stages today.

New Accredited Professional Processes

Incident to the roll-out of LEED 2009 are a series of significant changes to the LEED Accredited Professional process that all current LEED APs must familiarize themselves with.

Of note, in 2008, administration of the LEED AP program shifted to the independent Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI).

March 31, 2009 will be the last date that candidates will be able to register for the current LEED NC v2.2 and LEED CI v2.0 LEED AP credentialing exams to take those exams by June 30, 2009.

Beginning in early 2009, GBCI will introduce a new three tiered LEED AP credential structure, including LEED AP Associates, LEED AP Plus, and LEED AP Fellows. There will be a new two part examination of applicants and a bi-annual maintenance requirement, including continuing education, is being added. Candidates are currently being solicited for Beta testing of the new Associates exam and details on much of this will be available in February 2009.

Beyond LEED 2009

The process is already underway for a 2011 update. One of the stated goals of this improvement was the organization of LEED 2009 as a “bookshelf” of credits that are common to all LEED rating systems to be updated on a periodic basis, much the way building codes are updated.

The process of making the several different LEED rating systems internally consistent with each other permits credits to be considered in three groups: There are universal credits with titles, intents and requirements that apply to all commercial rating systems. There are also semi-universal credits where the title and intents are universal, but requirements vary across rating systems. And the third group are rating system specific credits applicable only to a specific rating system.

USGBC has already announced that the next update will incorporate greater building lifecycle analysis.

A continuous improvement mechanism is now in place that will yield a predictable bi-annual incremental evolution and advancement, toward sustainability in the built environment, with a 2011 update.

Green building has evolved from a niche market to a major market segment in the $1.2 trillion annual U.S. construction market. The last year has been marked by economic uncertainty and we are still on the cusp of the Green building revolution. LEED 2009 will advantage this fastest evolving sector of the real estate industry.

Stuart Kaplow serves as legal counsel and a member of the board of directors of the U.S. Green Building Council Maryland Chapter. He represents a broad breadth of business interests as a real estate attorney who has an active land use and environmental law practice with focused experience in Green building and sustainable business.