What I think would be better for the transition would be to allow an alternative compliance pathway for the materials credits ("Backwards compatibility"-a bit more on this in a separate post) and have an earlier transition date for the whole system.

If we allowed some variation on just a couple of points worth of the current materials credits as alternative compliance pathways in the materials section (I think that the building lifecycle and construction waste credits are enough like the current credits to be recognizable), I believe that we could cut 6-12 months worth of transition time and accelerate the uptake of V4. (Naturally, this presumes that there is aggressive training for ASHRAE 90.1/62.1-2010 and other key new elements of the new system. Ironically, the EQp1 requirements are still stuck in 2004, rather than incorporating all the work on the IAQ procedure done in 2010.)

The ballot could go ahead in June 2013 as planned, the final adoption could happen late 2013/early 2014 & the V3 sunset would happen 2Q/3Q of 2014.