Monday, November 19, 2012

LEED Moves with the Times: new changes to the CE Program


When designing LEED, the USGBC knew they were building a program that would have to move quickly with developing technologies. The newest change is a just-announced easier and more effective education experience for current LEED professionals.


If you already hold the LEED certification however, you know you need to take courses every one or two years to keep your credentials. And that audit period when you turn everything in can really stink. Sometimes you find you took courses that didn’t apply to you. Other times you find you are missing a couple hours and need to drop everything to take care of it by the deadline.

USGBC heard the critics. Often enough that they made to following modifications to the recertification process:

  • Reporting will get easier: RedVector and other providers couldn’t report what courses you took to the USGBC on your behalf. That was your job. An annoying job full of paperwork that could sometimes resemble doing your taxes.
  •  USGBC will be allowing RedVector and others to report directly for you, if you so choose. That could save you a lot of headaches in the future. We will alert you when they open that up. Right now it is still in the future.
  •  Forms: You know those reporting forms? They should be getting better by having less for you to fill out.
  •  Activity Types: this was where you were taking classes that you didn’t need. No more. They have reduced the activity types to four categories: education, LEED project participation, volunteering and authorship. Volunteering has a 50% hour limit and the other activities have no limit.
  •  Website changes: their site is looking much better these days, check it out. https://new.usgbc.org/leed/credentials
  • Free Stuff! Take a free 6-hour webinar and you get one free BD+C, ID+C or O+M specialty credential. If you already hold one of these, take the course and get another. No matter what designation you hold you’ll get 6 hours credit free (even Green Associates). Register here: https://new.usgbc.org/leed/credentials/leed-ap/upgrade
  • Another piece of good news for Green Associates? There are no more eligibility requirements, anyone over 18 can take the courses and test.
So there you go. LEED continues to change with the times. And RedVector promises to stay on top of all changes and help to make the LEED credentialing process as painless as possible.



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