The US Green Building Council is accepting public comments on its next version of the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. A draft was published in November, and this first comment period runs through January 14. Another comment period will be open July 1 through August 15, 2011, with more added if necessary.
Informally known as LEED 2012 (to distinguish it from LEED 2009, the last version, although the final rating system won’t carry a date), the draft introduces some important changes, refining some areas and expanding others. For stormwater professionals, the most obvious change is that the two Stormwater Management credits (quality and quantity) have been combined into a single Rainwater Management credit. (Some other areas that previously had more than one credit have also been combined, such as Heat-Island Effect.) For this preliminary public review, point values have not yet been assigned to the various credits; the first goal is to evaluate the credit requirements themselves and make revisions if necessary, and points will be determined later.
LEED 2012 also contains a new credit category called Location and Transportation that deals with areas such as site selection, development density, transportation, and walkable neighborhoods. Recent articles in Stormwater, such as Paul Crabtree’s “Principles of Smart Growth” in the March/April 2010 issue and Martin Dreiling’s “Taking a Stance on Sprawl” in the November/December 2010 issue discuss how many of these concepts relate to stormwater management.
You can find more information on LEED 2012 at the USGBC’s Web site, www.usgbc.org.