LEED 2012 Postponed to 2013, Renamed LEED v4

Here are a couple of excerpts and interpretations of what this change means and where it comes from. As of now, USGBC Nebraska Flatwater Chapter is continuing to plan on hosting our monthly lunch sessions on June 19th and 20th, though the focus may shift a bit from what we originally anticipated. We are working with National USGBC on the details.

Note that a fifth public comment period will open on October 2, 2012, and run thru December 10, 2012

The official email from USGBC President, CEO & Founding Chairman Rick Fedrizzi:

In response to overwhelming feedback from our members, core LEED users and engaged stakeholders, USGBC announced today that it will delay ballot on LEED 2012 until June 1, 2013. Because of this date change LEED 2012 is being renamed LEED v4.

To be clear... this change is 100% in response to helping our stakeholders fully understand and embrace this next big step. The passion for market transformation that resides in our membership and our LEED users is undeniable, but we also acknowledge the reality of the day-to-day assessment of market conditions that has informed this decision. Our commitment to you is that the balloting and launch of LEED v4 will be seamless for our users and successful in terms of advancing the market transformation we all seek.

Please read my letter on the USGBC blog »

Visit usgbc.org/LEEDv4 »

A post by USGBC LEED Faculty Member and President of Building Green, Inc., Nadav Malin:

In response to growing concerns from the market, USGBC is postponing plans to ballot the next version of LEED until 2013.

In a surprise move, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced today that it is postponing plans to ballot the next version of LEED until as late as June 2013. With this announcement, USGBC promises to keep LEED 2009 available for a full three years from now, although it intends to gradually ramp up incentives for teams to move to the new version of LEED during that time.

The move came in response to a growing outcry from architects and other building industry professionals—including many who have been core supporters of LEED since its inception—who had three related concerns:

• The proposed changes in the rating system were too much, too fast, especially in a weak real estate market.
• Some of the changes needed more refinement , especially in the Materials & Resources category, where whole new approaches to material selection had been introduced and had changed significantly with each public comment draft.
• Tools and resources needed to achieve the credits would not be widely available by the time the new system was slated to launch in November 2012.