LEED Accredited Professional

In case you haven't noticed, the few times that I have blogged lately, I have written about Sports or the Environment. Both of those are things that I am very passionate about. My last post was about sports, so I am headed back to the environment for this one. In case you don't know, I work in the construction management field. Also, in case you haven't heard, there is this fairly large and growing trend toward Green Building. It is promoted by the U.S. Green Building Council.

They have a certification process where buildings can go through a credit checklist to gather points to meet 4 levels of certification that demonstrates that the building is better for the environment. This is called LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification with levels of Basic, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. My new project has a specification that the building should meet the basic level, which is 26 points out of a possible 69. A number of months ago, a lot of us from work took a workshop that detailed the rating and credit systems for LEED certification. The end goal is that individuals were to become accredited professionals so that they could help the process to get our buildings certified.

Many months went by, leadership sent out a few messages asking that we all take the exam, and I continued to put it off. Finally, when I found out that my new project would include LEED Certification, I decided that I wanted to become accredited. I then scheduled the exam so that I would have a date in sight that I had to hit. I picked a day after a 4 day weekend so that I would be able to have time to study. I took an additional online class that was incredibly helpful. I went in yesterday morning a little apprehensive about the exam, but walked out a LEED Accredited Professional. I am very excited that I was able to add another tool to my tool belt, especially one that helps lessen our effects on the environment.