LEED: Personal Story
This is not a response to William's post, but something that I wanted to share as a more personal story of me. I gained my Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accreditation in 2008, and it has helped me secure more than two jobs because it was a visible certification to employers and clients that I had an understanding of sustainability in a tangible way. I've also been interested in the old SPiRiT program that the United States Army and other branches of the military explored, as well as Green Globe and the Passive Haus systems. I think it is a way to measure sustainability of architectural projects against some level. I would like to work on more LEED projects in the future.
To clarify on a common misunderstanding, people are accredited; buildings are certified.
I worked for Luckett & Farley in the summer of 2008 and the company was going through a yearly initiative for all of their designers - architects and engineers - to earn their accreditation within one year time. I participated in the internal lunch discussions where different members of the firm shared projects that they were working on and discussed the rating system, some of the questions that they had regarding how to earn points and theoretical questions about how this influenced design as a whole. I helped make a Powerpoint presentation for a landscape architect in the firm where he presented the presentation with my hand drawn diagrams to the local chapter of American Society of Landscape Architects, ASLA.
Near the end of the summer internship, I took off on a Friday morning and sat for the exam at a prometric testing facility, and passed the exam. I didn't know until later, but I was the first student to pass the exam in the Commonwealth of Kentucky! I was reimbursed for the cost of the exam and given a small bonus as an achievement, which made me feel good.
After graduating from the University of Kentucky, having my LEED accreditation helped me in getting two jobs, which I was especially grateful for in May and November of 2009 when the economy was poor - many architects were laid off - and few people had jobs. Most of my friends that I graduated from UK continued directly onto graduate school because there were no jobs - and many of them are licensed now.
LEED has changed great deal with updated versions of rating systems, a double process of having to earn your LEED GA (Green Associate) before earning your full accreditation, more points, more complex metrics for achieving points - it's harder - it's more complicated.
Yes, I acknowledge that in the simple sense, it is a checklist system that if you add a bicycle parking and showers to your building, you get a LEED point; and if you have a LEED Accredited project manager on the team, you get another point. These seem to be the two most simple and frequently criticized things I've heard regarding the LEED program, as well as the cost of documentation that has to be performed to prove to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) that you earned the points you said you were going to achieve, and that clients did not want to pay for that service. I'm still an advocate for it, and I think it's a good system. Does it have its flaws? Yes.
Congratulations to Vishnu for earning his LEED GA last year, and all of our fellow classmates who will be joining Perkins + Will after graduation will also be pursuing their LEED Accreditation - I wish you good luck and full speed!
Here's a beautiful project in Berea, Kentucky that Luckett and Farley did which achieved LEED Silver:
To clarify on a common misunderstanding, people are accredited; buildings are certified.
I worked for Luckett & Farley in the summer of 2008 and the company was going through a yearly initiative for all of their designers - architects and engineers - to earn their accreditation within one year time. I participated in the internal lunch discussions where different members of the firm shared projects that they were working on and discussed the rating system, some of the questions that they had regarding how to earn points and theoretical questions about how this influenced design as a whole. I helped make a Powerpoint presentation for a landscape architect in the firm where he presented the presentation with my hand drawn diagrams to the local chapter of American Society of Landscape Architects, ASLA.
Near the end of the summer internship, I took off on a Friday morning and sat for the exam at a prometric testing facility, and passed the exam. I didn't know until later, but I was the first student to pass the exam in the Commonwealth of Kentucky! I was reimbursed for the cost of the exam and given a small bonus as an achievement, which made me feel good.
After graduating from the University of Kentucky, having my LEED accreditation helped me in getting two jobs, which I was especially grateful for in May and November of 2009 when the economy was poor - many architects were laid off - and few people had jobs. Most of my friends that I graduated from UK continued directly onto graduate school because there were no jobs - and many of them are licensed now.
LEED has changed great deal with updated versions of rating systems, a double process of having to earn your LEED GA (Green Associate) before earning your full accreditation, more points, more complex metrics for achieving points - it's harder - it's more complicated.
Yes, I acknowledge that in the simple sense, it is a checklist system that if you add a bicycle parking and showers to your building, you get a LEED point; and if you have a LEED Accredited project manager on the team, you get another point. These seem to be the two most simple and frequently criticized things I've heard regarding the LEED program, as well as the cost of documentation that has to be performed to prove to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) that you earned the points you said you were going to achieve, and that clients did not want to pay for that service. I'm still an advocate for it, and I think it's a good system. Does it have its flaws? Yes.
Congratulations to Vishnu for earning his LEED GA last year, and all of our fellow classmates who will be joining Perkins + Will after graduation will also be pursuing their LEED Accreditation - I wish you good luck and full speed!
Here's a beautiful project in Berea, Kentucky that Luckett and Farley did which achieved LEED Silver:
Bingham Hall Renovation
Totally a response to my post, needs more cat pics
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