LEED v3 Online

What’s new online?

The USGBC has made 3 major changes to their program. I am extremely impressed with their ability to take suggestions from organizations world-wide and turn the site into a more user-friendly interface.

Harmonized Scorecards

Credits and Prerequisites are now common along all the major rating systems. In the old system, the scorecards for Commercial Interiors did not mesh with the New Construction scorecard. Click here to download the new LEED 3.0 Scorecard to see what changes have been made.

Best out of 100

This is aligned with the first change, where the scorecards were altered to better compare apples to apples from one rating system to another. The second change involves the overall point system. Previous LEED 2.2 was on a 69-point scale. You’ll notice the Scorecard I describe on this site follows this old rating system and is in the process of being updated to the new, improved standards(click here to see the old vs. new rating systems). LEED 3.0 is on a 100-point scale, putting more emphasis on the first three sections Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, and Energy and Atmosphere?. You’ll notice the points in these sections doubled in weight, while Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality and Innovation and Design? stayed relatively the same. And there’s a new section – I’ll describe it below, as it’s one of the best parts of the new system.

Regionalized Programs

The program is now regionalized! Naysayers used to criticize the program for giving the same points in Arizona and Washington for Water Conservation, where really these points are extremely difficult to gain for a project in Arizona, but perhaps easier for the project in Washington.

How did LEED regionalize? The new section on the scorecard awards Regional Priority Credits? to those projects that address issues of green building specific to their region. This is defined by an excel sheet for each state organized in ascending order by zip codes that you can download off the USGBC’s website for free. The zip code a project is registered under will determine what bonus points could be awarded for the RPC’s, as they are called. Essentiallym the credits are the same credits you’d find on the scorecard, but additional points are awarded for achieving those credits. Also, there may be higher thresholds that must be met in order to get the additional points. Click here for more information from the USGBC’s website.