The Bottom Line
We need your help to determine which of 6 LEED credits are to be eligible to receive one additional bouns point to emphasize the bio-eco-regionalism of the credit's intent and to make the LEED rating system reflect regional environmental effects.
Leed Regionalization Overview
LEED regionalization is an effort for the US Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED rating system to address environmental areas of concern in a project’s region. In its current form, LEED is applied uniformly across the United States and point values are equal for achievability of credits across various regions. If approved by the USGBC membership, LEED regionalization will enhance the flexibility of LEED and provide a more effective method of addressing the need for regional adaptation. Here it the the official overview from USGBC
How It Will Work
As a first step in this effort, 4 Regional Bonus Credits will be added to the in the Innovation & Design section of the following rating systems:
- LEED for New Construction and Major Renovation v2.2 (NC),
- LEED for Commercial Interiors v 2.1 (CI), and
- LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (EB: O&M).
- LEED for Core and Shell v2.0 (CS) and LEED for Schools 2007 will use the same bonus credits that are defined for LEED-NC.
Distinct Environmental Zones will be identified throughout the country. Within each zone, 6 credits of the existing rating system will be identified as eligible for the Innovation & Design Regional Bonus Credits. A project achieving one of these credits will be scored with a SINGLE additional point. As there are only 4 Innovation & Design Regional Bonus Credits, a project may only receive a maximum of 4 additional points through LEED regionalization. Click here for the list of LEED credits which are eligible to be considered Regional Bonus Credits. From this list, only 6 will be identifed for each Envionmental Zone.
The Process
The USGBC Chapter Network, working on a regional basis, is playing a crucial role in determining the Environmental Zones and the 6 credits eligible in each zone. The USGBC is made up of 8 regions. New England and Upstate New York are part of the Upper Northeast Region. The initial LEED regionalization scope is limited to foster a process for the USGBC Chapter Network to provide direct feedback on LEED. An Upper Northeast LEED Regionalization Task Team has been formed to carry out this work. As part of this effort, The Upper Northeast LEED Regionalization Task Team will be gathering information from both our Chapter Network membership and individuals and organizations to help weigh regional environmental issues. We encourage individuals and Chapter Network members in the Upper Northeast Region to participate in this dialogue. USGBC hopes to announce the completed LEED Regionalization work at Greenbuild 2008.
Your Participation
Anyone can help in this process and we look forward to hearing from experts, green building professionals, and the public at large.
You can post messages and comments to our discussion page.
was conducted to identify
important environmental issues for mapping.
A credit specific survey will be comming soon.
The Future
If successful, LEED regionalization has the potential to affect future versions of LEED. Future regional modifications may include additional prerequisites, alternative compliance paths, and new credits in an attempt to more accurately reflect the potential to either mitigate the negative or promote positive environmental impacts of a building. However, the first step in LEED regionalization will be limited as defined above to fosted the focused participation of the Chapter Network. LEED for Homes and LEED for Neighborhood Development are not currently part of the LEED regionalization effort and will be included in the future.
About This Web Site
Although this web site can serve as a communication tool for the Upper Northeast Region to facilitate discussion and provide feedback, it’s “jurisdiction” is officially limited to Vermont. As such, the Vermont representatives to the Upper Northeast LEED Regionalization Task Team would especially like feedback from fellow Vermonters. Informally this site may be used by anyone, but "Official" use of this web site by others in the Upper Northeast Region will be pending the feedback and approval of the entire Upper Northeast LEED Regionalization Task Team.
EVERYTHING ON THIS SITE IS PUBLIC
