If you’ve decided that you want to pursue a LEED professional credential, you will need to research and organize the following information:

• Exam prep options
• LEED test locations
• LEED exam dates

If you’re still in the early stages of researching LEED, check out our What is LEED? section and then re-join us here.

LEED Exam Prep: You’ve Come to the Right Place!

Everblue is an official Education Partner with the U.S. Green Building Council (who created LEED). We specialize in providing intense LEED Certification classes in both classroom and online environments. Since 2008, we’ve trained hundreds of thousands of professionals – from all educational, occupational, and geographic backgrounds.

• Start with LEED Green Associate training – prices start at $499 & include all study aids!

A note about LEED exam fees:

After you’ve completed training, you will need to purchase your LEED Green Associate exam from the U.S. Green Building Council. The exam costs $250. There are discounts available for full-time students, military veterans, and employees of USGBC Member Companies.

LEED Exam Locations

You’ll learn during your LEED training course that the LEED exams are administered exclusively by Prometric, a third-party test-proctoring company. So when it comes to LEED exam locations, you’ll want to visit the Prometric website.

The U.S. Green Building Council partnered with Prometric because the company has testing centers in nearly every major city in the world. Simply choose the “Locate a Test Center” icon on the Prometric website, answer a few prompts about which exam you desire to take, and the website will show you the closest testing locations to your city or zip code.

After the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Prometric also opened the option for LEED Online Exam Proctoring – in other words, the ability to test from home via live online proctoring.

LEED Test Dates

The LEED exam is not the type of exam that is only offered on select dates during the year. The LEED exams can be taken any time Monday through Saturday from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM.

After you’ve selected your Prometric testing center or online testing option, you will be shown a series of available time slots for your exam. Since the LEED exam is monitored by a live proctor, test appointments are required. Oftentimes, it’s very easy to find a test slot within the next day or two.

For more information about pursuing a LEED credential, give us a call at (800) 460-2575.

Congratulations! You passed your LEED exam and can now advertise your hard-earned LEED credentials on your resume and business cards. Just remember that you’ll need to keep up with LEED continuing education down the road…oh yes, we’re going to explain how to maintain a LEED credential.

Celebrate and enjoy this achievement…for now anyway!

About 12 months from now, you’ll want to get your head back into the game so you can start thinking about your future. Remember that when you registered for the LEED exam, you agreed to participate in continuing education at regular intervals. This is where we start talking about how to maintain a LEED credential.

This is known as the LEED Credential Maintenance Program, or LEED CMP.

If you’ve stumbled onto this blog looking for more information about LEED in general, check out our What is LEED? series now.

How to Maintain a LEED Credential with CMP

The LEED Credential Maintenance Program (CMP) states that all LEED-accredited professionals must participate in continuing education every 2 years to retain their LEED designation.

Why is LEED CMP necessary?

In 2009, when the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) revised its LEED credentialing process, it decided that it was important for accredited LEED professionals to demonstrate their expertise through ongoing continuing education.

The green building industry is fast growing and ever-evolving, so it’s important that the professionals who advertise their knowledge be, in fact, up-to-date on what is happening in the industry.

Who has to complete LEED CMP?

Both LEED Green Associates and LEED APs with a Specialty (BD+C, O+M, ID+C, ND, Homes) are required to complete LEED CMP. The specific requirements vary by designation.

LEED Green Associate Credential Holders

LEED Green Associates must acquire 15 hours of continuing education in their 2-year interval. Of those 15 hours, 3 must be specific to LEED concepts.

LEED AP Specialty Credential Holders

LEED APs with a Specialty must acquire 30 hours of continuing education in their 2-year interval. Of those 30 hours, 6 must be specific to the LEED Rating System of their AP Specialty. In other words, a LEED AP BD+C professional will need to complete 6 hours that are specifically about LEED BD+C concepts.

Dual LEED AP Specialty Credential Holders

It’s important to note that a professional with two LEED AP designations is required to complete 6 hours for *each* LEED AP specialty that they possess. For example, someone who has earned the LEED AP BD+C and the LEED AP O+M designations will need a total of 36 hours of LEED continuing education, where 24 hours are categorized as general, 6 hours are aligned with LEED BD+C, and 6 hours are aligned with LEED O+M.

What about LEED APs without a Specialty?

Legacy LEED AP Credential Holders

Legacy LEED APs are professionals who passed the LEED AP exam prior to 2009. At that point in time, there was only one LEED exam available – called LEED AP. Upon passing this exam, a professional had earned the LEED AP designation. The LEED AP designation is different from the LEED AP Specialty designation, which debuted in 2009.

The LEED AP designation did not – and does not – come with a LEED CMP requirement.

Anyone who passed the LEED AP exam before 2009 remains a LEED AP for life. However, it is understood in the industry that this credential is outdated. The pre-2009 LEED AP exam is no longer an option.

The USGBC gave LEED APs the opportunity to opt into their new credentialing system for a brief window of time. Those who opted in upgraded to a LEED AP Specialty designation, such as LEED AP BD+C. Now, any LEED AP looking to opt into the new credentialing system must start at the beginning level, which is LEED Green Associate. The alternative is to remain an “inactive” LEED AP.

When does LEED CMP have to be completed?

LEED professionals will need to satisfy their LEED CMP requirements within their 2-year reporting period.

The 2-year reporting period begins on the date that a candidate passes his or her LEED exam. If you pass the exam on August 15, 2017, then your reporting period begun on August 15, 2017.

The 2-year reporting period ends 2 years later, minus 1 day from the start date. Using the same example above, your reporting period end date would be August 14, 2019.

The next reporting period start date would be August 15, 2019. The next reporting period end date would be August 14, 2021. And so on.

LEED professionals can log into their USGBC accounts to see their reporting period dates.

Do LEED CMP hours roll over?

No, credential holders should only submit 15/30 hours during that reporting period. Additional hours completed will not roll over into your next reporting period.

What if I let my LEED credential lapse?

The CMP Guide states that there is a 90-day past due period. Credential holders will have 90 days to renew and report hours previously earned within their reporting period, which starts after the reporting period has ended. You will not be able to earn hours during this time. If you do not report enough hours and successfully renew by the end of the past due period, your credential will expire.

LEED professional credentials will expire if the credential holder fails to complete the CMP requirements. Renewal must be submitted no later than 90 days after their reporting period end date.

If your LEED credentials expire and you later decide that you want to get back into the LEED credentialing system, you will need to start over at the LEED Green Associate level. This applies to all professionals, regardless of whether you had earned the LEED Green Associate or LEED AP Specialty designation previously. There is no discount for this status. You will be treated as a new testing candidate.

What counts as LEED CMP activities?

LEED professionals can earn LEED CMP hours through activities related to green building and health and wellness. Those activities include:

• LEED continuing education courses
• LEED project participation
• Authorship on a print or digital publication
• Volunteering

Can I participate in the same activities each time?

If you’re taking training courses to satisfy your LEED CMP requirements, you cannot count the same classes taken more than once. Keeping in mind that the purpose of LEED CMP is to encourage additional learning and competency, the USGBC does not accept repeat classes as a way to satisfy this requirement.

How do I report my LEED CMP hours?

To self-report LEED CMP activities, log into your USGBC credentials account and select Report CMP Activity.

If you are participating in Everblue’s LEED CMP Training program, we include a short form that asks for your name, ID number, and deadline. Upon submitting this form to us, we can submit your LEED CMP hours to USGBC on your behalf.

What does LEED CMP cost?

The cost of satisfying your LEED CMP requirements will vary depending on which activities you choose to pursue.

The Everblue LEED CMP Training programs are popular because they include all of the hours needed to satisfy the LEED CMP requirements. Since it’s an online program, participants can log in and complete activities any time 24/7 at their convenience (within the one-year account access). Starting at $149, professionals can gain instant access and begin knocking out their requirement.

Please note – in addition to completing the LEED CMP hour requirement, professionals must also pay a renewal fee to the USGBC. As of this writing in September 2017, the renewal fee is listed on the USGBC website as $85. This amount is subject to change at USGBC’s discretion.

LEED professionals with more than one LEED AP Specialty will need to pay $85 per credential earned/renewed.

Have more questions about LEED CMP?

Give our team at Everblue Training a call (800) 460-2575 if you want to talk through your LEED credential requirements.

We hope we’ve helped you answer how to maintain a LEED credential. The answer is, it’s super easy with our online LEED CMP package!

After months of raising awareness on the benefits of green roofs, a group of environmental activists are halfway to their goal of passing a local Denver Green Roof Ordinance that requires green roofs on every building constructed after January 1, 2018 that has a gross floor area of 25,000 square feet or greater.

The activists working on the Denver Green Roof Initiative have been collecting signatures to get the green roof ordinance added to the November 2017 ballot. Press coverage from the local ABC, CBS, and FOX affiliates, as well as newspapers like The Denver Post and Denver Business Journal, helped the Initiative earn its 4,771 valid signatures. The Initiative exceeded the 4,726 signature threshold by just 45 signers.

As a result, Initiated Ordinance 300 will be added to the Denver ballot. On Nov. 7, registered voters will be able to voice their opinions on the concept and choose whether to pass the ordinance.

Rumor has it that the legislation was largely inspired by the green roof ordinances in Toronto and San Francisco. As the Green Building Law blog pointed out, Colorado’s political atmosphere – being a Blue state – could likely mean that voters will pass the Denver ordinance.

Denver Set to Become LEED & Green

Of all the states in the union, Colorado has consistently shown its progressiveness toward environmental policies. The U.S. Green Building Council recently ranked Colorado in second place by total square feet of LEED-certified space per resident. Colorado is one of only two states that has made USGBC’s Top 10 States for LEED list every year since 2010.

LEED is a rating system that awards points to buildings that have incorporated energy-efficient and sustainable technologies into the design, construction, and operations phases. For a building to earn a coveted LEED Certification label, it must acquire at least 80 points across multiple categories. Some of the categories that award points for green roofs include Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, and Materials & Resources. For more information about LEED, visit our What is LEED? section.

It’s impressive that Colorado is already a leader for LEED Certification – with or without the green roof legislation. However, it’s safe to say that we can expect to see even more LEED projects sprouting up in Denver if the legislation passes!

Why Residents Support the Denver Green Roof Ordinance

Brandon Rietheimer, the founder of the Denver Green Roof Initiative, indicated that more than 80% of the Denver voters he spoke to loved the idea of the green roof ordinance and wondered why the city hadn’t already implemented such legislation. This is definitely easy for the average consumer to say. But what will this legislation really mean for the stakeholders involved?

For Developers/Owners

In addition to meeting building code, building developers and owners can expect to see the following benefits:

• Greater roof durability
• Better building valuation
• Improved insulative value and thermal comfort
• Lower heating and cooling costs
• Lower stormwater mitigation costs
• Lower fire risk

For Green Building Professionals

If the green roof ordinance passes in November and indeed leads to more LEED projects, it would be wise to position yourself in such a way that you can take advantage of potential new business. This means brushing up on the LEED standard and earning a LEED professional credential.

Since the Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, and Materials & Resources categories appear in the rating systems for new construction and existing buildings, there is opportunity (and perhaps necessity) to pursue LEED AP credentials, such as LEED AP Building Design + Construction or LEED AP Operations + Maintenance. Not only will these credentials provide the knowledge to plan for and design green roofs, but these credentials will help you demonstrate your qualifications and expertise in this area to potential clients and employers.

First things first, though – if you’re new to LEED, you should absolutely start with the LEED Green Associate training to become familiar with the LEED Rating System and LEED Certification requirements. After you pass the LEED Green Associate exam, you can then decide whether you want to upgrade to a LEED AP credential.

For more information about LEED, give us a call at (800) 460-2575.

And let’s all keep an eye on Colorado this election season and see what happens with the green roof ordinance. If you are a registered voter in Denver, consider voting YES on I-300.

Photos courtesy of Denver Green Roof Initiative

Hippies. Trendsetters. The Rich and Famous. These are just a few words and phrases that come to mind when folks think about California. But California green building should also be up there.

Hollywood obviously contributes to the glamorous visions of California, and things like the California Green Building Standards Code, or CALGreen, contributes to the perception of an environmentally-friendly, forward-thinking locale.

California adopted its eco-friendly persona in the mid-2000s, when green building was really starting to take off. The state became the first in the nation to enact a statewide mandatory green building code that covered nearly all residential and nonresidential construction. This was also around the time that LEED Certification started to grow and gain credibility, and many wondered how the two green building standards would work together; would they compete, or would they complement one another?

It helps that CALGreen set the stage for builders and contractors to begin thinking about green building strategies. Whether construction teams pursued LEED or not, they were at least incorporating sustainability into their buildings.

But over the years, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), who created LEED, has worked diligently to share the spotlight in California and, in July 2017, announced that new commercial buildings built to the robust CALGreen code would be pre-approved for significant streamlining of fundamental LEED Building Design and Construction requirements.

Let’s take a closer look at CALGreen and LEED for a moment before we think about green building’s future in California…

The California Green Building Code

CALGreen offers a proven set of high-performance environmental strategies and mandates their use as standard practice on all permitted construction in California.

The purpose of CALGreen is to improve public health, safety, and general welfare through enhanced design and construction of buildings using concepts that reduce negative impacts and promote those principles that have a positive environmental impact and encourage sustainable construction practices.

CALGreen was adopted to address five divisions of building construction:

• Planning and design
• Energy efficiency
• Water efficiency and conservation
• Material conservation and resource efficiency
• Environmental quality

CALGreen applies to the planning, design, operation, construction, use, and occupancy of every newly-constructed building or structure on a statewide basis unless otherwise indicated. Additions and alterations to existing buildings that increase the building’s conditioned area, interior volume, or size are also covered by the scope of CALGreen.

What is LEED?

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards also promote a proven set of high-performance strategies, but LEED Certification of buildings is voluntary more often than not. An exception to this is federal and government-owned buildings, which are generally required to achieve some level of LEED Certification.

LEED shares much of the same purpose as CALGreen but addresses a few more divisions of building construction. All LEED-certified projects must satisfactorily represent strategies from these categories:

• Location and Transportation
• Materials and Resources
• Water Efficiency
• Energy and Atmosphere
• Sustainable Sites
• Regional Priority
• Innovation

Like CALGreen, LEED-approved strategies can be incorporated into the planning, design, construction, and operation of new and existing buildings.

For more information, visit our What is LEED Certification? page.

CALGreen vs. LEED in California

As you can see, those who were confused or worried about CALGreen and LEED existing in the same space certainly had a reason!

When California legislators updated the CALGreen code in 2010, even more people were up in arms. It became clear that CALGreen wasn’t going anywhere and that people needed to wrap their heads around it one way or another.

Since CALGreen is a mandatory statewide code, it’s a no-brainer that that’s where building professionals would start. The question then became, would they challenge themselves to achieve the voluntary, yet marketable, LEED Certification label?

If everyone is building to CALGreen standards, what can you do to stand out? Enter LEED.

LEED Certification: How California Stacks Up

In the USGBC’s most recent Top 10 States for LEED Green Building report, California ranked fifth in LEED Certification per-capita by gross square footage. This report summarized the number of buildings (in total) that acquired LEED Certification in 2016. California was also listed on the 2015 and 2014 lists, both times in the seventh place.

You can see from USGBC’s State Market Brief that LEED project registration and LEED Certification have been dramatically on the rise for the last 10 years. It appears that the introduction of the CALGreen code in 2007/2008 had no negative effect on LEED green building in the state. On the contrary, it seems that with the construction mindset already focused on implementing green building, many went above and beyond to pursue LEED in addition to the code requirements.

Click image to view a larger version in a new tab

It’s no wonder that the USGBC has streamlined its LEED project documentation to align with existing CALGreen code requirements.

California Green Buildings Now Pre-Approved for LEED BD+C Certification

After a report on barriers and opportunities for green codes in California was released in 2015, USGBC launched an effort to build off the statewide CALGreen code by streamlining the documentation of a handful of credits for projects in California.

At the GreenerBuilder Conference on July 13, USGBC President and CEO Mahesh Ramanujam announced the new alignment of CALGreen and LEED in certain areas. Qualifying commercial projects will be able to use code compliance documentation to satisfy LEED v4 BD+C prerequisites and earn 6 points toward LEED Certification.

The full list of streamlined measures are as follows:

• SS Prerequisite: Construction Activity Pollution Prevention
• SS Credit: Light Pollution Reduction (1 Point, Option 1)
• WE Prerequisite: Outdoor Water Use Reduction
• WE Prerequisite: Indoor Water Use Reduction
• WE Prerequisite: Building-Level Water Metering
• WE Credit: Outdoor Water Use Reduction (1 Point, Option 2)
• WE Credit: Indoor Water Use Reduction (1 Point)
• EA Prerequisite: Fundamental Commissioning and Verification
• EA Prerequisite: Minimum Energy Performance
• EA Prerequisite: Building-Level Energy Metering
• EA Prerequisite: Fundamental Refrigerant Management
• EA Credit: Optimize Energy Performance (1 Point, Option 1)
• MR Prerequisite: Storage and Collection of Recyclables
• MR Prerequisite: Construction and Demolition Waste Management Planning
• MR Credit: Construction and Demolition Waste Management (1 Point, Option 1)
• EQ Prerequisite: Minimum Indoor Air Quality Performance
• EQ Prerequisite: Environmental Tobacco Smoke Control
• EQ Credit Construction Indoor Air Quality Management Plan (1 point)

An additional 50 points are within reach via LEED credits that exceed code minimums but are complementary to state requirements.

USGBC hopes to significantly streamline documentation requirements for California projects. This new approach will simultaneously reward projects throughout California for meeting the stringent statewide standards and provide a more direct entry point for LEED certification (and an incentive for more projects to exceed code minimums voluntarily).

The Future of California Green Building

The State Market Brief graphic above was last updated in May 2017, so it’s likely that numbers have increased since then.

The Brief also shared that there are close to 30,000 LEED-accredited professionals in California. In our recent blog, we shared 2017 insight from USGBC that, across the country, an average of 1,000 professionals are earning LEED credentials every month. Both in terms of LEED certification (buildings) and LEED accreditation (people), LEED is growing at a tremendous and unprecedented rate.

According to USGBC’s 2015 Green Building Economic Impact Study, green construction will account for more than 3.3 million U.S. jobs—more than one-third of the entire U.S. construction sector—and generate $190.3 billion in labor earnings by 2018. The industry’s direct contribution to U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is also expected to reach $303.5 billion from 2015–2018.

If you’re ready to take your career to the next level, join an upcoming training course to become a LEED Green Associate professional. For more information about the LEED credentialing process, give us a call at (800) 460-2575.

If you work in the construction industry – from design to sourcing to building to maintenance – you’ve probably heard about LEED certification and the credentials available for LEED professionals.

But if you are new to LEED and would like a better understanding of what it is, take a moment to browse our What is LEED? overview series.

The power of LEED is evident through the 1.85 million square feet of construction space being certified every day and the more than 200,000 professionals worldwide who have improved their careers through a LEED professional credential.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), who created LEED, has published year-over-year (and in some cases, monthly) reports showing the growth of LEED – both in terms of certified buildings and LEED-accredited professionals.

An April 2017 report from USGBC called LEED Professionals at a Glance revealed that the United States is home to the most number of LEED credential holders, with the most popular designations ranking as follows:

• LEED AP No Specialty (pre-2009)
• LEED AP With Specialty
• LEED Green Associate

During a more recent call with USGBC staff, we learned that both the LEED Green Associate and LEED AP BD+C Specialty credentials were showing more popularity than prior years.

Bearing in mind that the USGBC discontinued the LEED AP No Specialty designation in 2009 to create a tiered LEED credentialing process and then upgraded to LEEDv4 in 2014, you can see in the following chart how sustainability professionals reacted. More importantly, you can see that demand for LEED Green Associate is at near all-time-high levels, with an average of 710 individuals passing the LEED Green Associate exam each month.

The LEED AP Building Design + Construction specialty, which expands on the LEED Green Associate knowledge and focuses on new construction strategies, is also showing an increase in popularity. USGBC is seeing an average of 240 new LEED AP BD+C credentials every month.

As the largest USGBC Education Partner, we’re honored to help contribute to LEED’s overall impact and success. Through our LEED Exam Prep training packages, which have shown to yield a 99% pass rate on the LEED Green Associate exam, candidates from all over the world are learning valuable skills that will enhance their career – either through salary increases, promotions, gaining more business, or a combination of all three!

If you’re ready to improve your career with LEED green building knowledge, join one of our LEED Green Associate Exam Prep training courses – available in person and online! For questions about the credentialing process, give us a call at (800) 460-2575.