LEED Professional Credentials
Earning a new LEED credential for the first time?
Are you looking for credentialing maintenance hours?
The new LEED Credential Maintenance Program: why it’s now easier to earn and report continuing education hours
In late 2012 there were some very important changes made to the LEED Credential Maintenance Program (CMP). These changes make it far easier for professionals to earn and report continuing education hours in order to maintain their LEED credential.
In an effort to help Canadian LEED APs understand how these changes will positively affect the process of earning and reporting CE hours, we have compiled a list of Questions and Answers from the USGBC that should help you better understand the process.
For more information on the full range of GBCI CMP changes, visit their website now. You may also contact CaGBC Customer Service for additional help.
Q&A's
Q1:
I have the LEED AP accreditation acquired before 2009. I enrolled into the new accreditation. If I don't fill the 30 hours credential maintenance program due to career reorientation, can I retain the LEED AP accreditation from before 2010?
A1:
If you do not meet your credential maintenance requirements within your 2 year reporting period, you'll go back to your LEED AP credential without specialty.
Q2:
Can education opportunities be shared between different credentials? For example, if an education seminar is related to interiors, can LEED ID+C as well as LEED BD+C, or even LEED GA professionals use this presentation to qualify towards education hours in their CMP? In the prior system this was dealt with through the different categories and types. Now, all of these lunch-and-learns or seminars are all just listed under “education”.
A2:
Whether or not a course can be used towards credential maintenance for a group of LEED APs with varying credentials depends on what the requirements are for each of those professionals and the specific course being offered.
For instance, LEED APs with a specialty who are currently in a prescriptive path still need to fulfill prescriptive requirements, therefore they would need to ensure that the course they are taking fulfill those requirements. If a course meets the separate requirements of different LEED APs, there is no reason why they wouldn’t be able to use it towards their credential maintenance.
GBCI is placing more trust back into the hands of the individual credential holder, but at the same time, they should consider their CMP entries like a resume. If someone believes they have engaged in an activity that builds their expertise, they should report it. However, true expertise matters in LEED projects, and should be taken seriously. If someone claims expertise based on marginally relevant education, it will eventually show up in their LEED project performance.
Q3:
When going to report activities, I still get asked to put it in a category. How come?
A3:
Those who are not asked about categories in their reporting form fall into these groups:
- LEED APs with specialty who are in their second reporting period;
- LEED Green Associates; or
- LEED APs with specialty who acquired their first credential by passing the exam.
Anyone who falls into one of these groups and is still seeing the older reporting form should contact GBCI.
Q4:
I was told by the GBCI that the “no more categories” change doesn't come into effect until you take the USGBC Principles of LEED webinar series. Is this true?
A4:
For those who are still in prescriptive credential maintenance, and are not pursuing the Principles of LEED series, they still have to distribute 24 of their 30 hours across the subject categories (though the hours do not have to be LEED specific, nor do they need to be approved).
For those who are taking the Principles of LEED series, once they complete the series, GBCI considers their distribution or prescriptive requirement to be satisfied. This means that GBCI turns off that requirement in their account, and they can obtain their remaining hours in any category.
Q5:
How do these changes affect those with multiple specialties?
A5:
The benefits of the Principles of LEED series were intended to be applied to one’s primary specialty. One cannot use the series to reclaim, maintain, or change the reporting period type of secondary or tertiary specialties.
So yes, the six LEED-specific hours required for additional specialties must be acquired through other means.
Specific information for LEED APs maintaining multiple specialties can be found in Appendix B of GBCI’s most recent CMP Guide.
Q6:
Will the CaGBC send project hours to the GBCI for LEED APs who submit project LEED Letter templates?
A6:
This is an interesting idea but is not intended in the foreseeable future.
Q7:
My Credentials asks me for a date and title, but according to the CMP Guide I can only report one credit per project hour, so the request for a date does not make sense to me.
A7:
Ascribing a date to project work is highly subjective. However, pinning it down to a particular date range establishes the likely rating system to which it applies and its relevance to one’s state of development. There is a start date and end date, so those dates could correspond to the range of time that one worked on that credit.
Q8:
If my participation in the project stops before the building gets certified (i.e. I leave during construction) is my participation on the project still valid for CE hours?
A8:
Absolutely. The threshold question regarding CMP applicability is whether the project was registered, not when it was certified at the time of project participation.
Q9:
Can you confirm that for LEED APs who are currently in their first (prescriptive) reporting period, there is no longer a requirement to indicate what category activities fall under when they self report to GBCI? (i.e. would they be able to claim all of their hours under Project Site Factors, as opposed to earning a certain number of hours in each category).
A9:
Here is how it works fort LEED APs with specialty who are currently in their first reporting period:
If they continue in that prescriptive period, they still have to distribute 24 of their 30 required hours across the GBCI topic categories: (Project Site Factors; Water Management, etc.)
However, they have the option of meeting the prescriptive requirement by signing up for, and completing the Principles of LEED series. By completing the six (one hour) segments in the series, they can complete their prescriptive requirement, and complete their LEED specific requirement. *If this option is chosen they would then have to make sure that they have completed the remaining 24 hours, but those hours do not have to be assigned to a GBCI topic category.
To those in prescriptive, whether they take the Principles of LEED series or not, is the removal of limits by activity type.*There are no limits by activity type for: Education; LEED Project Participation; or Authorship. There is still a limit to volunteer hours: 50 per cent of one’s reporting period.
Q10:
Can someone switch their primary credential from O+M (enrolled) to BD+C (tested), so that their expiry dates are actually two years from the test date?
A10:
No, you cannot switch specialties in order to avoid prescriptive credential maintenance, because it is the prescriptive path that would entitle you to continue holding the O+M credential.
You can, however, take the free six hour Principles of LEED course for O+M in order to satisfy the prescriptive requirement. Once you have finished the six segments, you will still need to earn 24 more hours, but they could be in any subject category.
Q11:
For the new CMP Guide (Valid for November and December 2012) - do these rules apply to all LEED professionals even if their expiry date is before the issued date (i.e. Expiry date is Oct 2012)?
A11:
We decided to make those changes effective for all active LEED professionals to encourage them to persist in their continuing education.
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