The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced that its membership voted to adopt LEED v4. The final tally was 86 percent voted in favor of adopting LEED v4. This includes 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. The minimum overall percentage of votes needed for a passing vote was 66.7 percent.
“There are 46 countries and territories around the world and all 50 U.S. states (and the District of Columbia) represented in the voting pool for LEED v4, which includes an extraordinarily diverse group of industry professionals, manufacturers, educators and other green building leaders,” said Joel Ann Todd, chair of the Leed steering committee. “USGBC sets a very high bar for a rating system to be approved. The rating system must earn a significant percentage of the overall vote, as well as a majority approval from each of the various LEED stakeholder groups. This ensures that rating system approval represents the full diversity of USGBC’s membership.”
Starting this summer, USGBC will offer education on LEED v4 in the form of webinar suites, and the full program, along with reference guides, will be unveiled at this year’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo. Currently, there are more 100 projects pursuing certification through the LEED v4 beta program.
