On April 27, the U.S. Green Building Council and the Green Building Certification Institute released LEED Version 3. The latest version of the green building rating system, in the works for more than three years, "sets the stage for the growth and improvement of the whole LEED program for the next several years," says Mike Optiz, USGBC's vice president for LEED implementation.
The current release includes LEED 2009, LEED Online Version 3 and a new certification process based on ISO standards, administered by the GBCI. It also updates all the LEED categories at once. These include LEED for new construction, schools, core and shell, commercial interiors and existing buildings. LEED 2009 also has created a 100-point credit scale for all the categories. In the past, each category had its own scale. In addition, all points are weighted scientifically, based on their importance in the realm of their environmental impact. Language has been harmonized across all five categories.