4th comment period open

So the most recent LEED 2012 email from communications@usgbc.org which I received on Friday 5/11 starts by saying "LEED users we have heard you" and then promptly acknowledges that "when LEED 2012 launches in November" there will be some mitigation measures like extended LEED 2009 registration and formalized beta testing of 2012 by a limited group rather than the continuous beta testing of LEED 2009 that we are all still doing. The beta testing item begins with a more politically correct "once LEED 2012 has successfully passed ballot" but since it follows the item 1 statement of definitive November launch, it sounds like a formality.

Those are nice suggestions and obviously reflect oversight of the LEED 2012 forum discussion that has been going on. However the overall implication is that launch is a foregone conclusion in November. What are we voting on then?

If the proposed LEED 2012 standard does not pass membership ballot LEED 2009 will remain the active standard until such time as a new standard can be successfully balloted.

No doubt there is a great deal of hope/wishful thinking in the statement 'when LEED 2012 launches in November'

The November implication may be foregone because they have never failed a vote.

LEED-ND failed to reach quorum in its initial public vote. USGBC's solution was to extend voting by 3 days and email everyone encouraging them to vote 'abstain' to help them reach quorum. LEED-ND passed and objecting to the vote rigging didn't change that fact.

Well, there has to be a fixed timeline printed...if not we'd still be using pilot versions of everything. Hopefully at GreenBuild there will be plenty of 'presentations' of V4...with enough time to voice our support, or not, in the more public forum. But voted up or down doesn't mean that V4 is going away from conversations we are all currently having...it still stands with USGBC to make the case of why we should vote for it.

Bill, I think 'vote rigging' is uncalled for. Please keep the conversation based on the content that you and I both know about...not on voting operations.

LEED 2012 email from communications@usgbc.org on Friday 5/11 calls for formalized beta testing of 2012 by a limited group, as Michelle mentions above. What are the advantages of doing that?

Kath, Any beta testing has to help rather than the drop dead requirements of a new version appearing at 8am on a Monday morning. With so many changes a period of calm, clear and concise thoughts about how to make a new version work would be most useful. You and I and a few others started this 'thing' many years ago when it was just single tenant office buildings, now we're pushing the boundaries with the most diverse buildings we can find. Will V4 work in a multi-tenant mixed use, multi ownership leased property as well as in a laboratory...and so on. Another reason would be that it helps those marketleaders really step up and undertake V4 and provide, through venues should as LEED user, with valuable information for others to take further into the marketplace. I see no downside to a 1 year V4 pilot with V3 still live through that time.

Hi Barry,
The reference I saw said "test drive the new rating system prior to the launch at Greenbuild", so where is this 1 year V4 pilot with V3 still live through that time coming from?

And for the sake of my poor confused brain. There is a distinction between the v3 platform and the LEED 2009 rating system, so I presume that is the same issue here. That speaking to v4 is a reference to the platform and not the proposed LEED 2012 rating system. Am I understanding you correctly? Why would there be a whole new platform for LEED 2012 anyway? Or do you mean LEED 2012 when you say V4?

Barry and all, I don’t doubt the value in the beta testing of this version. Absolutely essential…to LEED, USGBC, GBCI, the market, etc. There was a lot of learning way back when on the pilot for LEED 1, etc.
My question is how to convince an owner (I have three waiting in the wings right now) to let us use their project as a beta. What’s the benefit to them? Do they get to register for free? A complimentary design review?

Kath...well hopefully they get reduced GBCI fees...and 'marketleader' status...and....oh and we get a headache!