Tara,
I have worked on ten projects that have achieved LEED Certification now (6 Gold, 4 Silver), and I personally feel that on each of those projects we were "much much greener" than any non-LEED project or "designed to LEED standards" project I have ever been involved with. I have been in touch with this lawsuit's perspective the past few months, and I feel like it was inevitable. Having followed LEED since it awarded its very first LEED certifications in 2000, I know LEED was designed to be a leadership based checklist, and many, many people have morphed it into something it is not. For example, how can you ask city governments to adopt a leadership based checklist program? The USGBC has created Standard 189 with a number of other acronym orgs. to allow for LEED to remain what it is, a challenging leadership based rating system, not a building code or performance code. LEED is not really a building code, although many in the industry think it is now.
As for the LEED AP designation, I have trained over 3000+ people to study and pass the LEED AP exam over the past five years, and as with the ARE exam and architecture licensure, it is a stepping stone to expertise, it certainly isn't a proof of excellence across the board. I have met incompetent LEED APs just as I have met incompetent AIA members/Registered Architects. That is why I follow, support, and participate in Continuing Ed for both Architects AND LEED Accredited Professionals. Without the program, we have too much incompetence and no way to reward expertise. It, like any professional program, is far from perfect, however.
To me, the lawsuit is an easy way out, to some, having an acronym after your name is an easy road to being respected. I believe you earn respect one project at a time, one client at a time, one deadline at a time. Hopefully we all learn from our mistakes, and focus on the "get it done" piece. In LEED, if you sit down and go thru every point, and set a goal, it is full of ethical decisions, challenges, environmental leadership requirements, and possibility.
It's a tool, it shouldn't be a product of a class action suit. With LEED AP, it's a benchmark test. Again, it's a tool to expertise. It's not "in-the-field" experience with environmental leadership.
Like anything, truly leading never ends, it just keeps challenging us. If it frustrates one too much, they right a nasty class action lawsuit and see if they can kill a good thing based on volunteers and strong, best-practice principles.
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Peter Levasseur AIA, LEED AP+BDC, LEED AP+IDC
Architect/ Project Manager
Voorhees NJ
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