LEED AP

For the early adopters of LEED green building professional credentials, the GBCI holds a special identify for you in their database. Your LEED AP without specialty-more warmly referred to equally 'Legacy LEED AP'- never expires. That's correct. Never expires as in, it is your designation forever. Even if you let your specialty designation expire by not keeping up with CEUs, you remain a LEED AP without specialty. This is great news!  If yous are looking to add more than professional credentials to your name, we recommend earning a different credential like the WELL AP Credential, that style, y'all can remain a Legacy LEED AP forever!

The Original LEED AP

To be part of this elite club, yous must have earned your LEED AP credential earlier June 30th, 2009. Back then there was just ane credential, the LEED AP. It required no specialization and no continuing education. LEED was still relatively young, and unknown outside of progressive circles of Architects and "tree-huggers." Therefore, the design and construction industry holds the first generation of LEED APs in high regard. They were the trail blazers and tendency setters, causeless to be very much still engaged in practicing or teaching sustainability.

July 2009 marked the nigh meaning evolution in LEED'due south history. USGBC and GBCI upgraded to version iii in both rating systems and credentials. So, in 2016 LEED updated once again to version v4 (LEED v4). The expanded options for building certification came with an expanded field of professional person credentials-with specialty. Moreover, maintaining your specialty status with the new and improved credentials at present requires continuing instruction on a two-year cycle.

LEED Continuing Education

This ways that if you became a LEED Green Associate or LEED AP w/specialty after 2010 and oasis't reported whatsoever continuing education, you will lose your entire credential. Then, y'all would be required to re-test (by taking one or two tests) to gain it back. USGBC updates their rating systems regularly and they need you to update your knowledge to remain credible. For example, USGBC changed the Materials and Resource credit approach dramatically from v3 to v4. There is no longer as much value for materials sourced within 500 miles of a projection.

LEED AP with specialty Exams

The only bad news for LEED APs without specialty is that if you have not specialized yet, nor reported standing education units every two years, y'all must re-examination to get a specialty. All the shortcut offerings have passed. Essentially, you accept to start fresh to become a LEED AP with specialty. You must pass both the ii-hour LEED Light-green Associate exam, and a two-hour LEED AP with specialty test. If yous want more than i specialty, you lot must take more than than i exam. After that, go on upward your continuing educational activity and you can easily maintain 2 or three specialties. GBES can help you with both preparing for and maintaining your credentials. We offer packages to get all your continuing education in cocky-paced content modules that are pre-approved by the USGBC.

Next Steps

For those "grandfathered" into their LEED AP credentials that practise not take continuing education requirements to maintain your credential, we recommend the WELL AP credential as your side by side step as opposed to pursuing a LEED AP w/specialty.  This is primarily for 2 reasons:

  1. Instead of having to pass two exams, you would only need to pass ane.
  2. You can continue your privilege of not needing bi-annual continuing education to maintain your condition.

If you work on a lot of LEED projects information technology still may be beneficial to earn a LEED AP with specialty credential, but if y'all don't, the WELL AP credential may be a better option and is worth considering.  Nosotros recommend the WELL AP credential considering information technology is one of the fastest-growing edifice rating systems (second only to LEED).

At that place is about a xxx% overlap of LEED and WELL, only the main deviation is that WELL focus on quality as opposed to LEED that focuses on quantity and preserving our valuable resources.  WELL, for example, requires loftier-quality air, water, and v other concepts at the building level all with the end result of creating and operating buildings that promote occupants health and well-being. It is an interesting program to learn virtually, and a lot of the best-practices you lot larn tin exist applied to your personal life.

Nosotros have a lot of great report tools and continuing education for the WELL AP credential. If you lot're looking to add more initials (aka credentials) to your name, become a WELL AP!

WELL AP Exam

Stay an Manufacture Trendsetter

You are an industry leader; then, why not stay that way? Stay alee of the curve with the one-of-a-kind Green Building Matters Community within our GBES UNLIMITED offering which is designed to teach you the latest and greatest about green buildings in a fun and inspirational way. Nosotros are very excited to be serving our Light-green Edifice Matters Community with live events designed to proceed your green building and sustainability knowledge ahead of the curve. We have a new teaching platform with tons of on demand education, but we're even more than excited about all the monthly alive events nosotros are lining up. Every month we will have webinars, a live boondocks hall conversation with industry influences, and monthly projection Q&A webinars.

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