Delays in LEED 2012

7/16/2012 | Construction Blog

The U.S. Green Building Council has elected to delay implementation of its LEED 2012 rating system due to the high volume of comments it received to the proposed new standards. Both the name and the date to vote on the proposed changes have been changed. The new standards will now be called LEED v4 and it will be voted on in 2013.

The delay in implementation may be the direct result of efforts by trade groups and politicians to lobby the USGBC’s biggest client, the General Services Administration. These efforts, lead by Senators Vitter and Landrieu of Louisiana, called for GSA to abandon the new standards because of the impact it would have on jobs and the lack of support for its “arbitrary” requirements. This, in combination with the over 22,000 comments they have received to the proposed rules, has caused USGBC to slow adoption of the new rules and delay a vote on it.