With a final overall vote of 86 percent in favor of adoption, the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED v4 successfully passed member ballot last month. The much-debated revision of the green building rating system will go into effect in November. Easily surpassing the minimum overall 66.7 percent of votes needed for passage, the newest version of LEED passed with 90 percent approval from the user category of the voting body, 77 percent approval from the general interest category and 89 percent approval from the producer category.

As previously reported, a number of the changes to the LEED system drew passionate commentary over the past two years with much of it centered around changes relating to the Materials and Resources credits. Currently, there are more than 100 projects participating in the LEED v4 beta program and the first of these projects may receive certification this summer.

NRMCA will offer a head start to our members with an updated Concrete’s Role in Sustainable Development online course on August 5-8 that will feature LEED v4. Subjects covered will include Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), Responsible Sourcing, LCA, and Health Product Declarations (HPDs). Click here to register or see item below for more course details.

For more information on the LEED update and the upcoming course, contact NRMCA's Tien Peng at TPeng@nrmca.org or 206-913-8535.