Hello LEEDusers! I am a newly-registered member and I would like to thank everyone (esp. Tristan!) for this very helpful site.

I am an environmental professional from the Philippines and plan to take the LEED Green Associate Exam, hopefully, this year (2014). I am starting this new comment thread so I can help generate insights, study tips, guidance for would-be examinees like me, particularly that LEED v4 has just been released, and secondly, that I am a non-US resident and may be involved in non-US projects. I am sure that the LEED v4 considers international/global circumstances but it would be great to generate insights from practitioners who have been involved in projects outside of the US.

For example, how was it working in countries where LEED 4 guidelines had already been adopted (e.g., in the Philippines, we already have something similar called BERDE or "Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence"). Some questions that come to my mind are:

- Is it better /wiser to take the local professional certification first (in my case, BERDE) before taking the one from LEED (either Green Associate or AP or both)? [My own bias is to take the LEED first because I would rather have an over-all/global outlook first, and then something more 'localized' later on.]

- Are there circumstances where regulations/criteria/guidance from LEED somehow conflict with local regulations/guidance? What were the protocols/decisions that were eventually followed to find the common grounds?

- What relevant (more updated) materials/links are recommended, in the light of v4. I noticed that many materials have not yet been updated to meet the v4 requirements. (I am doing my own research and hope to share the links/materials later on but in case some of you have come across useful sites by now, then it makes our collective efforts more helpful to all)

Tristan, I hope this thread will be approved. :) If not, please feel free to recommend where this thread must be subsumed. :)

Many thanks, cheers,
Mei

P.s. Here is the BERDE site:
http://berdeonline.org/