Attention LEED-APs

If you are a LEED AP – and over 130,000 of you are – you have a decision to make. You can retain your current status as a legacy LEED AP – a designation that I suspect will lessen in stature over time – or you can upgrade to a LEED AP (with specialty) by enrolling the newly available Credentialing Maintenance Program (CMP). More on that later.

Your upgrade options are:

1. Sit for and pass one of the specialty exams: Building Design & Construction (BD+C – the former NC); Interior Design & Construction (ID+C – the former CI); Operations & Maintenance (O+M - the former EB). Raise your hand if you want to take another exam. I didn’t think so.

2. More likely you’re going to enroll in the new “tiered system” by agreeing to the CMP and signing the Disciplinary Policy. You will then be able to use one of the specialty designations that correspond to the exam track under which you were originally credentialed. My appellation, for example, will become Penny Bonda, LEED AP ID+C.

You have two years to enroll, starting sometime between now and October. GBCI will send you an email letting you know that your enrollment period has begun, or you can go to www.GBCI.org and click on My Credentials. If you don’t enroll during your two-year enrollment period, you may continue to use the LEED AP appellation; however, you will have to sit for and pass the exam if you decide to upgrade at a later time. Have you raised your hand yet?

Enrolled LEED APs (with specialty) will be required to pay a biennial fee of $50 (though it is waived for existing LEED APs for the first two years) and comply with the CMP, which requires 30 hours of continuing education every two years, six of which must be LEED specific. LEED APs (without specialty) are not subject to the CMP requirements and fee.

New LEED AP (with specialty) candidates who sit for and pass the two required exams will be automatically enrolled in the tiered system. Existing LEED APs, all 130,000+ of us, can choose to opt in or not. Distinctions will begin to be noticed in the marketplace. It will be interesting to watch this evolve.