Hello, my name is Joan Mahon, and I teach the LEED training courses for Everblue. I recently visited the United Kingdom to teach a course and wanted to share some stories about my travels. Specifically, I enjoyed discussing the LEED and BREEAM standards with the students in my class. 

I flew to London Heathrow and boarded the express train to Paddington Station, a train station built in the Victorian Era. The beautiful grille work is reminiscent of the Crystal Palace, and the station itself is the “home” of the Paddington Bear, a beloved children’s book. From Euston station I took a train north toward Glasgow and spent Halloween weekend in Lymm with my brother-in-law, Mark Tavelli. Mark works for URS and is the Deputy Engineering Director at Sellafield Ltd. This is a nuclear site in the Lake District of the UK on the Irish Sea. They are doing the important work of safely decommissioning the site. Previously, Mark was Director of Engineering for Washington Closure Hanford in the US.

Lymm is a quaint village in the Town of Warrington. We spent the afternoon watching the Rugby Club of Lymm emerge victorious in their match and then joined the mates in the clubhouse for celebratory good cheer. The next day we visited Chester, a Roman Garrison on the River Dee. We walked the Roman walls, had a wonderful lunch sourced from local farms and visited Chester Cathedral at twilight. With its Roman and Tudor architecture, Chester is an architectural wonder and a pedestrian-friendly walkable city.

November 1-2, 2011

Thomas Vale’s Business Development Manager, Sam Hollis was our host for the two day LEED Green Associate class held at the Forum Training Center, Stourport-on-Severn. Among the attendees were several BREEAM Assessors who are working with multi-national companies interested in LEED. Their knowledge and skill in green building was highly advanced. During the class, we discussed some of the similarities between the LEED and BREEAM standards. Our discussions were enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable as we learned together.

Stourport-on-Severn is a scenic town located in an area known as the Midlands. This region is considered the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. Less than 1km from the Forum Training Center was a Menzies Hotel with a full health club “The Waves” that serves the community. A visit to the Midlands was like a mini holiday.

There are a number of certifications exist to pursue and verify green building and design. Two of the more popular green home building programs are the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED for Homes Program and the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) National Green Building Certification. Both programs require third-party verification from a LEED Green Rater or NAHB Green Verifier.

LEED Green Raters are the only raters qualified to work with the LEED for Homes Program, an initiative launched in 2007 by the USGBC to promote the design and construction of high-performance green homes. Qualifications for Green Raters include at least three years of experience in residential construction, the completion of the LEED for Homes Program Review Series and Green Rater training, and the passing of the LEED for Homes Green Rater Exam. Green Rater responsibilities include serving as a liaison between the USGBC and a project’s design team, overseeing all project verification services, and ensuring that Project Submittal Packages are complete.

NAHB Green Verifiers are responsible for ensuring that residential buildings and land developments comply with the National Green Building Standard, a definition of sustainable building practices created in 2007 by the NAHB. The standard defines green building for single and multifamily homes, residential remodels, and site developments. Green Verifiers are responsible for performing site inspections and document reviews and must have previous residential construction experience, green building knowledge, and specific training in the National Green Building Standard. Green Verifiers must also pass an accreditation test and are certified by the NAHB Research Center, the sole certifier for the national NAHB Green Program.

Both the LEED and NAHB green home building programs encourage contractors to use sustainable building techniques in the design and construction of homes. They also rely on formal rating systems and similar criteria for evaluating projects. Under NAHB’s National Green Building Standard, projects may collect as many points as necessary without restriction in order to achieve a level of certification. In contrast, the LEED for Homes Program mandates specific requirements that must be met in order to achieve LEED for Homes certification. In addition, LEED is largely recognized as the national benchmark for green commercial building, while NAHB is better known as a trade association that helps to promote policies that make housing a national priority.

While both LEED for Homes and the National Green Building Standard guide green building with similar processes, understanding different building standards will help homebuilders and their clients to capitalize on new opportunities emerging from the ever-expanding green market.

As the green building industry grows, you can expect the LEED employment outlook to also explode. Not only can you get a job, but you’ll pick up valuable skills for the future…

Pop quiz. Who wants a job? Now who wants a job that pays well?

That’s what I thought.

The green industry is a great place to shift your career. Green building, in particular, accounts for a vast slice of the green jobs pie. These jobs require new training and new skill sets. Certification programs like LEED will soon become a necessary prerequisite in design and construction fields, and currently give job seekers an undeniable edge.

So What Is LEED Anyway?

LEED is the authority in green design. It tells us which buildings are “green” and who is certified to design “green” buildings.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is an internationally recognized green building certification system started by the USGBC (United States Green Building Council), an independent, third-party non-profit. It uses a point system to grade all aspects of a building’s (or neighborhood’s) environmental impact, from water use, to building materials, to stewardship of resources. Projects are ranked as Silver, Gold or Platinum. Its flexible approach considers the entire lifecycle of the building, applies to all types of buildings and allows for an evolution of the point system.

Growing Green

Fortunately for those of us in the ever-expanding “green” fields, green-collar jobs sit at the nexus of the future. They save energy, save money, and create jobs.

These jobs require skilled labor and innovative design. They are jobs that absolutely cannot be outsourced because they require local people on the ground. That’s a lot of green.

Will LEED Get Me A Job?

Since LEED is a comprehensive rating system that covers areas from citing, to exterior construction, to interior building materials, to operations and maintenance, it touches every individual involved in the lifespan of a building. Architects, engineers, landscape designers, interior designers, facility managers, sustainability coordinators, urban planners, contractors, tradesmen, sales personnel and teachers or professors all benefit from the LEED accreditation program. Click here to see the best jobs for using LEED.

Furthermore, since the green trend touches every aspect of our economy, virtually anyone benefits from attaining, at the very least, a LEED Green Associate certification. This is the most basic level of certification and is also a prerequisite for attaining higher levels of LEED certification. By itself, the Green Associate certification provides a broad understanding of green principles. This is useful in any imaginable field of the future, from education, to business, to sales. The solution to climate change demands that we consider a horizontal approach. A LEED Green Associate certification sets you up to be an authority on green principles, no matter what field you are in.

A quick job search for “LEED” on SimplyHired returns hundreds of job listings, all of which list LEED accreditation as a “major plus” or “required.” As more and more construction shifts towards green design and official LEED Certification, LEED Accredited Professionals will not only be beneficial, they will be mandatory. Anecdotal evidence suggests that anybody currently employment in the design and construction industries will attain more responsibility, more clients and more success after becoming a LEED Accredited Professional.

Of course there is no silver bullet that will snag you that dream job. But in today’s increasingly competitive job market, it’s important to set yourself apart from the pack. The LEED employment outlook is positive, so do what you can to research and join the industry. A LEED Certification is your first step to furthering your green design and construction education, adding an important credential to your resume and finally getting you where you want to be professionally.