My observations, from an international point of view, are as follows :-

1) A hard copy, in the form of a comitment by the engineer on a company letterhead with his full signature, will always command more respect. We cut and pasted the data from the electronic forms onto paper and had the Professional Team sign that. It protects my client, and indirectly the USGBC.

2) The electronic signature still has some way to go before it is legally binding ? But its a good starting point and should be continued.

3) Required Signatory – Eap2 – Credit Form

In our case there is no ONE single Design Engineer than could sign off on the ALL the ASHRAE 90.1 aspects of the building, as required by the electronic form.

We therfore used a hard copy approach and had the Professional Team sign off as follows

5.4 Building Envelope - Architect
6.4 HVAC Systems - Mech Engineer
8.5, Power - Electrical Engineer
9.4 Lighting - Electrical Engineer
7.4 Service Water Heating - Electrical Engineer
10.4 Other Equipment - Electrical Engineer

Lastly, given the rather slow LeedOnline website ( it may be because we are on the other end of the earth, and it may be faster in the USA ? ) and its rather delicate state, we decided not to risk having others chopping and changing data, and possible introducing errors. We prefer to enter all data ourselves.