With construction projects facing deadlines to be eligible for tax credits, drop dead dates to meet contractual obligations and otherwise needing to obtain LEED certification by December 31st, submission deadlines to the Green Building Certification Institute are fast approaching.
Appreciate that a couple of weeks ago (i.e., the week that ended November 2nd) 48 projects comprising 8,833,676 square feet achieved LEED certification in the U.S. (not including Homes or the several ‘confidential’ projects that were certified).
There is obviously not any one homogenous building type seeking LEED certification. The projects certified last week ranged from a 4,579 square foot LEED-NC Retail Silver Chick-fil-A in San Jose to a 1,401,298 square foot LEED NC Gold National Nuclear Security Administration plant in Kansas City, and a 224,865 square foot LEED EB:OM Gold office building at 1800 K Street in Washington, DC.
With that diverse and heavy workload in mind, the U.S. Green Building Council has announced deadlines for project certifications that owners want awarded before the end of 2013.
With respect to deadlines to submit for review and achieve certification before December 31, 2013: USGBC advises a “standard final review” with application and payment submitted by November 13th at 9:00 a.m. will have a target return date of approximately December 20th. A “construction final review” has the same schedule with application and payment submitted by November 13th at 9:00 a.m. will have a target return date of approximately December 20th.
For those requiring certainty and an “expedited” review timetable: Note there is a surcharge in the LEED Registration and Certification Fees for an expedited review. Also, the availability of expedited review timelines is based on GBCI capacity, so if an owner is contemplating a year end certification, inform GBCI as soon as possible. USGBC advised an “expedited standard preliminary review” with application and payment submitted by November 13th at 9:00 a.m. will have a guaranteed return date of November 27th. An “expedited standard final review” with application and payment submitted by December 6th at 9:00 a.m. will have a guaranteed return date of December 20th.
An “expedited construction preliminary review” has that same schedule with application and payment submitted by November 13th at 9:00 a.m. will have a guaranteed return date of November 27th. An “expedited construction final review” with application and payment submitted by December 6th at 9:00 a.m. will have a guaranteed return date of December 20th.
These timelines also assume that no appeal review is necessary. Appeal reviews typically take 20 business days, and expedited appeal reviews are on a 10 business day schedule.
The deadline is this week to submit a project to be LEED certified before year end (without the time and expense of an expedited review).
Article by Stuart Kaplow, appearing courtesy Green Building Law Update.
I will be presenting at the USGBC’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Philadelphia, including a session on Friday, November 22nd at 8:00 a.m. Register today for “G09: Marketing Green Building: A Competitive Advantage Without Greenwash”.
