LEED certification

[mhayes]

does anyone know whether an electrical contractor can become LEED certified / accredited just for electrical trade related issues or is there one program requiring knowledge of all the aspects involved?

Thanks,

 

[charlie b]

Sorry, but it's one test, and electrical is a very small percentage of the program.

 

[infinity]

Is LEED certification even required if you're the EC? I've worked on several LEED jobs for a contractor who is not LEED certified. It would seem that the certification should apply to the designer and not the installer.

 

[charlie b]

Language correction: When you pass the test (I did about 5 years ago), you become a, "LEED Accredited Professional." It is not a "certification."

When the owner decides to get LEED credit for the project, they pay a fee, and the project becomes "Registered." If the owner performs enough of the requirements, and proves it to the US Green Building Council, then the USGBC grants the project the status of "LEED Certified," or "LEED Silver," or "LEED Gold," or "LEED Platinum." The difference between the levels has to do with the number of accumulated LEED points. One of the available points a project can receive requires only that at least one LEED AP be involved in the project. If you have one LEED AP, you get one point, and you can't get any more points for having more LEED APs involved.

So the short answer is that there is no LEED certification granted by the USGBC that would apply directly to an electrical contractor. What I do not know is whether an owner or a GC might be influenced, in their selection of the EC, by the EC having one or more employees who are LEED APs. I can say that in our office of about 60 engineers and designers, we have about 20 people who are LEED APs. I cannot say whether that fact has helped us win any jobs.

 

[e57]

Hemp inked rubber stamp IMO - feel good, smoke and mirror industry - a selling point for designers and architects who'll charge a fee/percentage to hit an imaginary mark of green-ness. At least in California, and locally the building/energy standards are far in excess of any LEED crap in the first place, so it is hardly justified. So often some sort of completely unnecessary non-structural design element will be ADDED to put some sort of hippy-dippy selling point to what otherwise would be just a normal building....

'Look - we took the floor boards of a building we demolished down the street slated for eminant domain high-rise redevelopment - and we re-finished them as completely uneccessary - you'll grow to hate it - wall paneling right here.' Sorry - but it is all hot air for sale - like "carbon credits".... Or the sale of indulgences.... JMSO

 

[Rockyd]

Well said E57!!!

I always get a strange look from the envirowacko's when I tell them Gorebal warming is BS. I normally have to ask them something they have yet to answer....like -

What great societies wiped out the previous ice ages...I believe there were three or more?


Envirowhacko's don't give a damn about the environment, they only care about control.

 

[infinity]

Envirowhacko's don't give a damn about the environment, they only care about control.

I really don't think that you can generalize the notion that anyone who's environmentally conscience doesn't really care about the environment. There are people on the fringes of every movement but it's unfair to paint everyone with such broad strokes.

 

[e57]

Well said E57!!!

I always get a strange look from the envirowacko's when I tell them Gorebal warming is BS. I normally have to ask them something they have yet to answer....like -

What great societies wiped out the previous ice ages...I believe there were three or more?


Envirowhacko's don't give a damn about the environment, they only care about control.

I wouldn't go so far as to say global warming is wacko, or politicize it by attaching Al Gore to the mix, but I do believe that many of the 'so-called' "green" policy is more about that funny looking cloth in my wallet than trees or air to breath. The LEED BS is more smoke and mirror/hide and slide environmentalism than actual environmental good faith effort.

Architects and Designers - much like us need work. And since they need something to sell other than the same old box like buildings we have been doing for the last 25 years or so, and since it would be really green - not to build anything at all..... But what I don't like about it is that there needs to be a money sponge in the form of complying with some false environmentalism - when we could just build the same building without the funny green stamp.

 

[Rockyd]

I really don't think that you can generalize the notion that anyone who's environmentally conscience doesn't really care about the environment.

Really? Maybe you've never had a battle with "big green" and their leaders. Here are some "quotes" from the fringe leadership -

We must make this an insecure and inhospitable place for capitalists and their projects?. We must reclaim the roads and plowed land, halt dam construction, tear down existing dams, free shackled rivers and return to wilderness millions of tens of millions of acres of presently settled land.

?David Foreman, Earth First!


What we?ve got to do in energy conservation is try to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, to have approached global warming as if it is real means energy conservation, so we will be doing the right thing anyway in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.

?Timothy Wirth, former U.S. Senator (D-Colorado)

Click this link to an article called RURAL CLEANSING by Kimberly A. Strassel (it's from the Wall Street Journal) to understand a little about big green.

When it comes to the management of the environment. and what makes sense on should check with those that actually have managed resources for generations, with plans for generations to come.Check out these resource managers from the Klamath Bucket Brigade. People that actually give a damn are normally to hard at work with it, to get the word out to us. I will stand strong with those who would wisely use the resouces, than those who can't buy a clue.

When you know the realities of agenda driven junk science, it'll turn your stomach as to what those who profess to love the enviornment would try to sell you as "good for the nation".

 

[bphgravity]

Beofre you tun out and gt the Leed Acredidation, check for the avalable programs that are in your state / city. Here in Florida, there are not less than six (6) recognized "green programs" available for builders and inspectors alike. However, only one or two are really practical / preferable.

I opted to go for the ICC certification which references the ICC-700 and IEEC to stay in tune with my other ICC certifications; and the Florida Green Building Coalition since Florida is where I live and work.