LEED®, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating Systems™, has taken the important step of creating a third party certification that is a separate entity.
The Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) has been established as a separately incorporated entity and is supported by U.S. Green Building Council. GBCI will be administering the credentialing programs related to green building. These practices must use applications of proven strategies for increasing and measuring the performance of buildings and communities as defined by industry systems, such as LEED.
The U.S. Green Building Council will still handle the development of the LEED Rating System and offer LEED-based education programs. Now the LEED Professional Accreditation program is independently administered under the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) to allow for balanced, objective management of the credential. GBCI will manage all the aspects of LEED Professional Accreditation program including the exam development, registration, and delivery. With this separation into two organizations it brings the credentialing program closer toward meeting the standard for program excellence put forth by the American National Standards Institute.
GBCI is still a new entity and has just begun to operate as a separate entity, this being said it already has helpful information for us the layman as well. You can visit GBCI and findLEED Aproved Professionals to help you in whatever stage you find yourself in. You are able to search their directory by name, area, area of practice and affiliation. That means that you can also check the accreditation of ones you may already have dealings with.
Being able to check accreditations easily is an important thing for those of us looking to find professionals who understand how we wish to remodel, improve, or build our homes.
