A lot.

It seems that while LEED is a great marketing tool, for promotion of sustainability, an organized system to standardize being green, a lot of architecture professionals see the personal certification as just an added label you have to pay for?

Exactlty.

When I look at the gbci website I just feel, kind of, already out of the loop and that if I have the best qualifications I could otherwise to be an intern architect, not being a Green associate or Leed AP will hurt my chances?

Having any kind of performance or environmental credentials helps more than not having anything. If you're still in school, look to see if your university offers any kinds of certificates in environmental studies, environmental science, environmental design et cetera.

There's LEED, Passivhaus, various institutional programs, GBCI. You may also look towards certifications from associated organizations like the ULI (Urban Land Institute).

First of all, thank you for choosing architecture as choice of poison and welcome to the world of being a grown up. Food stamp line is to your left, road back to parent's basement to your right. The best thing you could have done for yourself is failed a year and graduated a wee bit later. Things are kind of fucked 6 ways from Sunday right now. But we have our brightest working on it.

Getting the leed ap will be very beneficial to show prospective employers that you are an initiative taker. Which could set you apart from bitter competition. Little else.

Otherwise getting a leed certification will be of much bigger benefit to you once you have a few years of professional architecting behind you.

Anymore, a LEED behind your name is more important than the quality of work you do. People are stupid

mdler, I've never seen anyone start a sentence with the word anymore. You win today's internets.

LEED is just the loudest voice in the room and not necessarily the most correct or practical.

With out politicizing or being aggressive about it, if every building was converted to LEED Platinum ...

... the total net energy savings would be %0.00049 of the total 29,308,323,563,892.14 kilowatt-hours (100,000,000,000,000,000 BTUs) produced in the US.

LOL!

I need you to convert that for us into imperial units. How many hog farts to libraries of congress is that? Is it bigger than the state of Texas?

Well, since farts are about only 10% methane and one cubic meter of methane contains 36 megajoules of energy...

That'd be equivalent to 2,930,701,800,000 cubic meters of methane or approximately 29,307,018,000,000 cubic meters of pig farts.

That's roughly 19,601,665 Library of Congresses in volume.

That's roughly equivalent to 16,334,720,800 square miles. 60,818 times the size of Texas!

You clearly forgot to carry over a dozen decimals in your calculation. Nothing is bigger than Texas.

Also, your calculations indicate that one can only fit 322 libraries of congress inside of state of Texas. You clearly have no idea on how to convert volume to area according to her majesty's perception laws.

Oh and you beat me to posting the queen's picture.

Wait, I divided the total library square footage by 5280 instead of 27878400.

It comes out to 3,093,697 square miles of library. That's 11 times the size of Texas. Since each wing of the Library of Congress is about 5 floors, that's more or less 3 times the size of the state of Texas.

That's one hells of an expensive pig fart storage system.

"I could be wrong. But I work with some people who are advocates of sustainability yet, have no desire to buy into being a LEEP AP."

That's because Architects have always designed with the environment in mind, and we don't need a self designated body of bureaucrats to give us silver, gold or platinum stars, we are not in kindergarten.

You should focus on getting licensed.

creativity expert, thanks! That's mostly where I as coming from. I just wanted to see if there were other people who also looked at it that way.

rustystuds: The first post you wrote sums up my life right now, I was trying to leave the life-bitterness out of my actual question about LEED. Just becuase I try not to get too depressed over it, all day, more like 75%. haha Should have stayed in school, then at least I would feel more productive with my days. But that's another story you cleary understand.

Depends on who you ask, many design professionals are advocates of LEED. In a way, they don't have much of a choice because that is what the market demands right now.

wait, people actually care about this? with the exception of those who work explicitly as LEED consultants, no one i know who has taken the LEED exam has derived any real benefit from it. I say get licensed.

i should clarify...i mean LEED specifically, for initial employment, not sustainability. i agree w/the poster above in that sustainability concerns are and should be part of what we do.

clients somehow think that LEED = quality.

well that's great...yet another pay-to-play credential 'required' of an entry-level architect.

here's an idea for those of you who want to make a buck...invent a random credentialing/certification system and charge anyone who wants to differentiate him/herself from the pack $500-$1000 for it.

it worked for ncarb with idp, and apparently it's working for LEED...at least for the time being. that's only two...there's room for LOTS more...

This is the reason there is so much shit out there... our profession has mistaken letters after our names for talent

Candidates must have experience in the form of

* EITHER documented involvement on a project registered or certified for LEED

* OR employment (or previous employment) in a sustainable field of work

* OR engagement in (or completion of) an education program that addresses green building principles

So, unless you have 1 of these 3 criteria meet, you are INELIGIBLE to even consider taking the LEED AP exam, let alone the LEED AP BD+C exam. They have some additional specifics on what can count in each category. For a recent graduate, about the only 2 points of entry is if you happened to take a sustainable design course (assuming one was offered) and can track down the professor who instructed it to write a letter OR if you have previous work experience with an office who has done some LEED work and you can get a supervisor to write a letter and "pretend" you were involved with something sustainable.

It's really just another example of unemployed architects getting the short end of the stick.

Additionally, if you are unemployed and you find a way through the barriers to entry to the LEED AP Club, you have to renew every 2 years, which consists of a $50 dollar fee (sure to rise in price within 2 years) AND either retaking the exam (another fee) OR completing continuing education hours (also fee driven). All in all, you can expect that LEED will cost a couple hundred every 2 years... you know in addition to the money you have to pay NCARB for IDP or Exams or Licensing.

Cherith

I agree with ^ 150%. As someone who was trying to get back into the workplace, LEED was something that I was considering adding to my credentials. Unfortunately, I never worked on LEED projects in LA (everything was Title 24 and residential). You are basically fucked

i was unemployed recently...LEED never once came up in my job search, interviews, anything. i even interviewed with a firm known for their commitment to sustainability. i tried to bring up sustainability when asked why i was interested in working there, but even they didn't seem to give a damn.

set aside the $500 or whatever it costs to take the exam. use it to take a trip to an exotic location. then 5-10 years from now when you're having drinks with friends and someone says 'remember LEED?' and everyone starts bitching about it, you can indulge in fond memories of your week in Paris or Alaska or wherever.

elinor - I like the way you think! If everything involved with getting licensed, wasn't already expensive and time consuming. The money I'll spend on tests/books/ I'll need to work on a project or take a course I could definitley take a vacation and be happier. lol

elinor is right... before too much longer, I think the salient parts of LEED will just be built into the building codes and the whole certification process will either cease to exist OR only be useful for people working on very specific and specialized project types. Why shell out the bucks now when in 5 years it will be a useless alphabet soup jumble no one cares about? Unless of course you are looking for work in Portland, in which case you better take every course on sustainable design (and every LEED AP + exam), print your portfolio on triple-recycled post-consumer waster paper and sew your own clothes from organically grown hemp.

haha, yes. but licensing is different. it sucks that you have to pay all the fees, but at least you are paying for your chance at autonomy. that's kind of a big deal. my advice to all you recent grads--get licensed, ASAP. and--go traveling! :)

I like having LEED AP, BD+C after my name.
It seperates me from the rif-raf.
will prob not renew when the time comes and have done no continuing education

get your builders license instead..................

i got my LEED AP back about 3-4 years ago when it was the single easy test and nothing more

I really only did it because my company paid for it

Now it doesnt quite seem worth all the continuing work you have to put into it to keep up your status. Perhaps if your company has a ton of work that requires you to be a LEED AP+whatever, then it could be worth it. And i suppose it could help you find a job if you are looking for one

But if there are no immediate projects that require it or any immediate job prospects, I agree with those above who say it will probably be obsolete in a couple years.


Then again, those old timers like myself with our old LEED AP status, which i believe doesnt let us be the LEED AP on new projects (though i could be wrong) can no longer just fill in on LEED projects as easily, so it is a way to make yourself valuable to a particular company. So if there is that type of opportunity, it could be a way to get or keep a job