Current registered project shifts to New Rating Systems

William, that should be possible, yes. You would simply register a new project under LEED 2012.

My question is when will we be required to use the new 2012 version of the rating systems? And is there a grace period during which we can continue to use 2009 versions or choose to upgrade to a 2012 version?

Here is the reason for this question: we do a lot of campus guidance credit work with local campuses. We are required to submit both the campus credits and the individual project reviews under the same version of the rating system. Thus, we are trying to figure out how to help campuses plan ahead for submission of campus credits and individual facilities. An easy way to do this would be to register all of their proposed projects now. Then they could use the same previously approved campus credit submittal for all of these projects. This would create the greatest efficiency in time and money. Alternatively, if the individual project would rate better under LEED 2012, then we could choose to upgrade just that project to not use campus guidance and/or begin working on the 2012 campus guidance upgraded submittal.

The only slight answer to this question that I have found is from the "LEED Rating System Development FAQ" document:

Q: "I have projects using a current or older version of LEED. Will these projects be required to follow this proposed updates?"

A: "Projects currently registered with LEED should follow the version under which they are currently registered. Project teams will not be required or able to register for the updated rating system until it has undergone a ballot vote by USGBC membership. Prior to ballot, the proposed rating system will go through at least two public comment and response periods. Projects that have not yet certified at the time of launch will still be able to certify under the rating system which they are registered."

April, there are still projects using LEED-NC v2.1, even though there have since been releases of LEED-NC v2.2 and v2009. GBCI did announce earlier this year that v2.1 projects would be required to complete certification or re-register with a newer rating system, but just to give you some idea, there is a long grace period.You will have until the release of the LEED  2012 rating system, currently projected for Nov. 2012, to register under LEED 2009, so you have some time to see how the new rating system is developing and make your choice as to which is better for the projects.LEEDuser has a guide to the second public comment draft of LEED 2012, and a forum for posting thoughts and questions.