Leed Certification
LEED Certification, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is both a professional certification in sustainable building practices, and a grading scale on a structure’s environmental impact and sustainability (USGBC, 2008). A LEED certified professional is recognized as having completed the required course of curriculum in LEED and has successfully passed the LEED Certification exam. This allows a LEED certified professional to be able to work with colleagues of the construction industry in all aspects of a project to develop a LEED certified structure. Using LEED ensures a structure to be designed and built with the utmost attention to detail to assure that the structure is as environmentally friendly as possible.
LEED Rating Systems exist for every area of the construction industry and range from the interior finishes of commercial buildings right down to resource consumption and health risks of residential structures (USGBC, 2008). The LEED certification exam covers the entirety of the LEED AP Handbook as well as several industry standard construction practices. The exam and handbook together will run almost $700 for a non- USGBC member to take and nearly $600 for members of both the USGBC and GBCI to take (GreenBuild, 2008). The exam is very rigorous and the study time required to take the exam is substantial. Most people take about 2 months of 20 a week study time to prepare for the exam (GBCI, 2008).
Contrary to popular belief, becoming LEED Certified is not something that a person achieves, but it is the building that achieves it. The process of LEED certification has five different categories that insure that the build is a “green” building. There are five categories that are taken into account when building a LEED certified structure. They are sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality. This means that if all of these categories...
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