LEED Start Up Process:
1. Contact a LEED for Homes Green Rater/Provider (No longer found on LEED site!)
2. Determine if the project is suitable for LEED. For us this was a phone, email discussion. (LEED for Homes Eligibility Guildlines)
3. Register project. (Twinsprings Research LEED project)
4. Recruit a core design team, including a LEED AP for Homes consultant. (No longer found on LEED site.)
5. Hold a preliminary rating with the Green Rater/Provider. (Energy Logic Contacts)
Our preliminary rating was held at the Energy Logic Denver office on March 7th, almost a month ago. The preliminary rating uses the LEED for Homes checklist to discuss the LEED requirements for each point and to begin to think in terms of all the required categories that qualify a project for LEED certification.
I had already used the online LEED Scoring Tool formerly on the LEED for Homes site. There was both a the shorter introductory checklist and also a credit by credit detailed one. I completed both. I was so intrigued by the system that I registered for and took several Online GBCI LEED courses and qualified for the Green Rater course offered by the Energy Logic Academy. Along with several other students from Colorado and California, I attended the course in late February and received a completion certificate from GBCI.
I filled out a checklist of potential LEED points before the preliminary rating but at the meeting it was obvious that Carissa Sawyer knows the system inside and out and has the experience to recommend areas of concentration and advise caution about areas that are difficult to accomplish. Darren Legge was her assistant and also a talented environmental scientist who was finishing his Green Rater internship and will be or is now fully GBCI certified.
Becoming a LEED for Homes Green Rater and perhaps a LEED for Homes AP is a goal that I have set for myself too. I can’t rate my own project of course but this is good experience for future projects and of course to spread the green building word.
Counting the 4 “Maybe” points our preliminary rating shoots for 102 LEED project points just comfortably above the required 94 for Platinum rating for a 2213 square foot 3 bedroom home. (The total number of points for each LEED for Homes certification is figured on the size of the home and number of bedrooms.)
Our Target:
Possible Future?