At the end of April, LEED v3 (aka LEED 2009) was officially released. There have been several changes in the various rating systems, including the addition of regional priority credits. Previously, I discussed a few of the major changes in the LEED for New Construction checklist and so today, I’m going to look at how the LEED for Commercial Interiors (CI) checklist has changed.

 

The most notable change is the significant increase in points; LEED-CI v2.0 had a maximum of 57 points available while LEED-CI v3 tops out at 110 total available points. Projects seeking certification using the LEED-CI v3 checklist must score a minimum of 40 points to be certified. Projects earning 50-59 points qualify for LEED-CI Silver certification and projects that score between 60 and 79 points will earn LEED-CI Gold certification. LEED-CI Platinum certification is reserved for projects that score a minimum of 80 points.

 

The Water Efficiency section has been upgraded.  Previously, two points were available as long as a project had a 30 percent reduction in water use. In version three, a minimum of 30 percent water use reduction is required to score points (6).  Projects that have a 35 percent reduction in water use qualify for eight points while a 40 percent reduction earns 11 points.

 

In the Energy & Atmosphere section, two additional levels have been added to the Equipment and Appliances section. In version two, there were only two levels:  70 percent and 90 percent EnergyStar.  In version 3, two intermediate levels were added – 77 percent and 84 percent.

 

The LEED-CI v3 checklist (XLS) is available on the U.S. Green Building Council website. Beginning June 27, all new projects will be required to use version 3.