LEED 4.0

By Jeff Nippes

Whether you embraced or resisted the release of LEED 3.0 (LEED V3 or LEED 2009), one thing is certain, the next version of LEED is already in the works. I can hear some collective groans through cyberspace now. If something is working, why fix it? Or better yet, why do they have to change it now that I have it almost figured out?

First, relax. LEED isn’t changing anytime soon. Most of us are still trying to decipher all the changes that LEED 3.0 brought us, such as: the three tiered credentialing system (though only 2 tiers currently exist), the five specialty designations (BD+C, O+M, ID+C, Homes and ND), a 100 point credit scale for all categories, and regional priority credits.

Change can be painful and sometimes new versions of things are no better than the last. For example, some versions of Microsoft Windows are no better than their predecessors (anyone remember Windows NT?). But the concept of building a system, improving it, and launching new versions will, in the long run, greatly improve that system. If you looked back at all early versions of Widows, it’s hard to imagine how we ever called that an operating system (of course back then we didn’t know what operating system meant either). Perhaps we’ll all look back one day and talk about the early versions of LEED and how the changes brought on by LEED 3.0 helped us improve every subsequent version. We might even wonder how we ever got along without it.