I wish to pay the fee and register with LEEDonline (v3) a project about a real building that is to be designed and constructed, but the owner is not interested in obtaining any LEED certification.
However, I wish to train myself and my design & build team on the LEED certification process.
Therefore... I am having the thought to present myself as the owner of the building and register it so that I can have access to all those forms available in LEEDonline.
I will then fill in and upload these forms in LEEDonline, but I have no intention to submit them to GBCI for a combined or split review. I only wish to train my team on how to tackle a LEED project, just in case the next project we win is with a client who wishes to have his building certified.
So I am not planning to pay any certification fee and submit our work; only the registration fee is to be paid.
Is this allowed?
It is about a real building but it will be a mock or dummy LEED project. Is this illegal or not?
I will pay the required registration fee myself. Only the owner's registration information will be fake, as I am planning to use my own details and not the real owner's of the building.
The building of course is not going to be submitted for certification!
Thanks in advance!
Kathryn West
LEED AP BD+C, O+M, Green Globes ProfessionalJLL
154 thumbs up
December 9, 2013 - 12:53 am
This is allowed by the USGBC. You may want to select the option that makes the project confidential. It is great that you are creating an opportunity to " practice" LEED documentation. The forms are also available for free download on the USGBC website.
John Smith
1 thumbs up
December 9, 2013 - 2:58 am
Thank you very much Kathryn for the prompt response! This is really good news as I was not aware that USGBC allows this.
My main concern was (and still is) those two Registration Agreement and Certification Agreement documents which need to be signed at the start of the registration process!
Since the name of the owner is not going to be true, as I am planning to use my name instead of the real owner's name, I thought that this might be illegal and the USGBC or GCBI take actions against me even if I have no plans to proceed to the certification of the building.
Or the real owner might take legal actions against me! Certainly I will use the Confidentiality option for my project, but still any information I upload on the LEEDonline (even if I do not submit it for review) gives the right to the USGBC and the GBCI make use of this information. This is stated in paragraph 4 of both the Registration Agreement and the Certification Agreement documents, signed respectively by the administrator and the owner.
I have already downloaded the forms but it seems thery are just a sample and not all of them. Besides, I wish we to be trained on using the LEEDonline tool too.
In your opinion, should we go for the existing v3 version of LEEDonline or register the project with the latest one for LEED v4 which is to be introduced today December 9th?
Kathryn West
LEED AP BD+C, O+M, Green Globes ProfessionalJLL
154 thumbs up
December 9, 2013 - 4:17 am
Ideally the owner could help you set this up but if that's not possible then you shouldn't have a problem registering the project. In my experience I am able to register a project with "place holder" information as long as the zip code and LEED rating System is accurate. In my experience no "owner" had to sign the certification agreement before we upload documents. The certification agreement does need to be signed prior to submitting a project for review but that doesn't really apply to you. I would learn LEEDv3 since I believe most projects will be using this until v4 is the only registration option in June 2015.
I had a highly confidential project and I simply put the zip code and placeholder information when I registered the project because I wanted to make extra sure the project's LEED aspirations remained private. No owner'a signatures were required for me to register the project and start uploading files to LEED Online.
There are some government agencies that do this ( register and use forms but don't certify) all the time. They call their projects LEED "certifiable" instead of "certified."
Personally if I were you I would check with the owner. Also, I would list them as the owner in the forms you fill out during registration. By selecting the "this project is confidential" option it should prevent most issues. If you don't select that option then the owner information could show up in a publicly available database and that could cause problems.
Kathryn West
LEED AP BD+C, O+M, Green Globes ProfessionalJLL
154 thumbs up
December 9, 2013 - 4:22 am
Could you post paragraph 4 of the registration agreement? The certification agreement wouldn't be applicable since it doesn't need to be signed for your scenario.
John Smith
1 thumbs up
December 9, 2013 - 4:47 am
Heaps thanks Kathryn!
The LEED Project Registration Agreement document can be downloaded and viewed as a PDF from the LEEDonline website.
https://www.leedonline.com/irj/go/km/docs/documents/usgbc/leed/config/te...
Kathryn West
LEED AP BD+C, O+M, Green Globes ProfessionalJLL
154 thumbs up
December 9, 2013 - 4:50 am
So you can see what would happen if you put in the exact information for your building. It would show up like some of these projects on gbig.org. The projects are listed as confidential but the street address pretty much identifies the building ... http://www.gbig.org/search/buildings?utf8=✓&type=buildings&search%5Bla...
Kathryn West
LEED AP BD+C, O+M, Green Globes ProfessionalJLL
154 thumbs up
December 9, 2013 - 4:56 am
If you search "confidential" on gbig.org you see projects that opted to be confidential have their street address listed. Not very confidential! Whether you're able to enter a fake street legally is really a question for the USGBC or a lawyer. In terms of actual mechanics of the site it is doable and lets you get to the complete set up where you'd be able to document your project.
Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11477 thumbs up
December 9, 2013 - 12:29 pm
John, a lot of leading firms get practice by doing a real LEED certification of their own building or interior space. Doing a project pro bono or at reduced cost for a local nonprofit would also be a win-win.I doubt that there is any legal issue in what you want to do—plenty of projects register but don't certify for a whole variety of reasons. But if your objective is to train your team and doing a realistic walk-through, why not make it as realistic as possible, while also putting that effort to real use? Better motivation for your team, and advertisement of your capabilities, as well. Also, by involving your team in a real LEED project you can make them eligible for the LEED AP credential.