Have your say on the future of green building

Got an opinion on how green green buildings should be? Then it’s time to make it heard. The most well-known green building certification, LEED, is getting a makeover and the people behind it, US Green Building Council, want to know what you think about the whole shebang.

The LEED 2009 spec, which “represents a reorganization of the existing LEED rating systems for commercial buildings, combined with a series of major technical advancements focused on improving energy efficiency, reducing carbon emissions, and addressing other environmental and human health outcomes” according to the Council, is now up for public comment.

If you want to give your tuppence worth, then you’ve got until June 22, 2008, at 5 PM Pacific Time to put it in. You can find all the proposed changes and how to submit your comments here.

Here’s some details from the Council to be going on with:

LEED 2009 is not a “tear down and rebuild” of the LEED that exists in the market but rather a reorganization of the existing LEED Rating Systems along with several key advancements. LEED 2009 consists of prerequisite and credit alignment and harmonization, transparent environmental & human impact credit weighting, regionalization and a predictable development cycle. Prerequisite and credit alignment and harmonization has enabled USGBC to organize and administer LEED in a new way.

The LEED “bookshelf” is an organizational structure that will be used to administer LEED Rating Systems. This framework allows credits and prerequisites to be housed uniformly across multiple rating systems where possible. The rating systems on which USGBC is accepting comment are outputs of this bookshelf organized to be familiar to LEED users. Changes currently under development for LEED Online are envisioned to update the way project teams access LEED but the credit and prerequisite structure and mix of credits that make up a LEED Rating Systems remain the same. As the LEED bookshelf is an organizational framework and not a change to the requirements in LEED it is not part of the public comment process. Additional information about LEED Online will be available in the coming months.