The USGBC wants to ensure you don’t stop learning new green building topics after you’ve passed your LEED GA or LEED AP+ exams. They want you to continue growing your knowledge of efficient systems and whole building synergies. A requirement for continuing education ensures a high level of competency among all LEED professionals. Therefore, the USGBC employs a formal LEED Credential Maintenance Program (CMP) and requires Continuing Education (CE) hours.

Within 2 years of achieving your credential, LEED Green Associate professionals must complete 15 CE hours (12 “General” + 3 “LEED Specific”) or 30 CE hours (24 “General” and 6 “LEED Specific”) as a LEED Accredited Professional with specialty (LEED AP BD+C or O+M, for example). Each additional specialty requires 6 unique “LEED Specific” hours. The self-reporting program is accessible through your account by clicking here. If you do not keep up with the CE hours, your credential will lapse and individuals must re-test on the latest material to earn the credential(s) again. This summer, the LEED exams will be updating with LEED v4 material.

Everyone at SIG maintains their LEED Accredited Professional credentials with continuing education. We know that it’s not always an easy task, so we developed a curriculum to make it easier on you. SIG offers over 15 hours of continuing education topics to help you self-report and maintain current status with the USGBC credential maintenance program.

USGBC approved Continuing Education Topics:

• Integrating Photovoltaics in Buildings for Renewable Energy Production – 2.5 hours
• 20 Things You Need to Know About LEED v4 – 1 hour
• Blue Roofs: Cutting Edge Stormwater Management – 1.5 hours
• 30 LEED EBO&M Mistakes to Avoid – 1 hour
• Demand Response: Getting Paid to Reduce Electricity – 1.5 hours
• Regenerative Green House Gas Inventories: Carbon Offsets from Forestry – 1.5 hours
• Implementing Indoor Water Use Reduction – 2 hours
• Green Leasing – 1 hour
• Location and Linkages Implementing Bicycle Network, Storage, & Shower Rooms – 2 hours
• Outdoor Water Use Reduction Using Xeriscaping – 2 hours

In addition to attending a live workshop, reading an article online, or streaming a recorded presentation, one of the fastest ways to self-report CE hours is claiming project experience. Individuals can report up to ten hours for working on a LEED project; one hour for each credit completed and two hours if you are the project administrator. Need to get your continuing education requirements completed fast? Look up your local USGBC chapter and see if they have any volunteer opportunities. Offering your time wins you a one for one credit towards LEED continuing education.

When it comes down to it, fifteen (15) or 30 hours over two years isn’t too bad. One of our Principals, Charlie Cichetti [LEED AP BD+C, ID+C, O+M, ND, and Homes] has to do 54 hours for all of his letters over a two-year period! He was one of the very first professionals in 2009 to earn all of the new LEED credentials. Currently, according to the LEED GBCI Professional Directory, Charlie is one of only 15 professionals in the world that hold all of the LEED credentials.

At SIG, we are committed to helping our staff keep current with trends and green building research by sending them to the annual Greenbuild Expo hosted by the USGBC. We’d love to meet you there. If you can’t make it, we’ll come to you. Let us design a custom education course to suit the needs of your journey. What we’ve learned on our journey is that the more you dig in, the clearer and easier it all becomes and we’ll advance the green building industry together.

For more information on a LEED CMP class for your team, please contact Beka Rund – bekar@sigearth.com

Helpful Links:

http://www.usgbc.org/sites/default/files/CMP-Guide.pdf

http://www.gbci.org/main-nav/professional-credentials/resources/at-a-glance.aspx