GBCI pulls LEED certifications back in-house

The Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) is pulling back part or all of the LEED certification process in-house from independent certifiers.

Announced it was planning to shift its internally run certification of buildings to independent certifiers administered by a sister non-profit, the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI).  A speaker at an USGBC - National Capital Region event declared on March 17 that USGBC was taking steps to reverse this direction and bring the LEED certification process back in house to USGBC. After posting this on our blog, Virginia Real Estate, Land Use and Construction Law, GBCI replied that GBCI was keeping the certifications but apparently is pulling some or all of them back in house.

The outsourcing to GBCI and third party certifications was initially described as adding greater independence.  Commentators also discussed the potential for removal of conflicts of interest, first with the initial transfer of testing and accreditation from USGBC to GBCI a year prior to the transfer of certifications.

Last year, USGBC faced reports of significant delays in the certification process. Most notably, Vandana Sinha of the Washington Business Journal reported in May 2009 on, "a backlog of hundreds of LEED certification requests that has stretched processing periods from what should be five weeks to closer to five months."  USGBC touted that the new shift to GBCI, coupled with extensive additional managed third party reviewers, would wipe out the backlog by June 26.  As detailed in our article for Building Washington, Volume 24, No. 3, "Green Overgrowth", review times were still estimated by USGBC staff at twelve weeks in August 2009.

We had not heard much anecdotal grumbling over review times in the last few months. GBCI staff informed us that review times generally are within the estimates of 25 business days for preliminary construction phase reviews and 15 business days for final construction reviews. Assuming this is true, it appears that the backlog as been worked off.  How much is due to efficient administration as opposed to an evaporating construction pipeline due to the tanking construction economy is a valid question. 

It is against this historic backdrop that we must view the casual bombshell dropped by Stuart Kaplow during the USGBC - NCR event March 17.  Mr. Kaplow, Chair of USGBC Maryland, described some specific struggles and frustrations with the certification process in the wake of GBCI administration where credits were misinterpreted by reviewers and historic positions were ignored during the process.

GBCI provided a very intriguing official response to our original blog post.  The full language is in the comments section of our blog post, but the relevant first paragraph reply states:
There has been some misunderstanding about recent process changes at GBCI, the third party that provides certification for LEED projects. GBCI is bringing the technical review of project documentation in house over the next two years rather than continuing to manage the process exclusively through other certification bodies. This move will allow us to have closer technical oversight of reviews and more direct communication with our customers to ensure consistency and clarity throughout the process. This doesn't change anything project teams are doing now.

We appreciate the comment and clarification, as well as the delicious nuance this adds to the discussion.  It appears that:

The plan is not to transfer control back to USGBC from GBCI for the LEED certifications as initially stated by Mr. Kaplow; however, It appears there are in fact substantive and substantial changes anticipated to the current certification regime; GBCI in fact is taking at least some level of technical review back "in house"; I am struck in particular by the "ensure consistency and clarity throughout the process" language ... that suggests that process changes were needed to reign in and create consistency amongst the various third party outside bodies.  While the detail is shifted a bit, that clearly fits with Mr. Kaplow's description of process and credit review issues.

Timothy R. Hughes is Of Counsel to the Arlington, Virginia law firm of Bean, Kinney & Korman, P.C. and a LEED Accredited Professional.  He is Lead Editor of the firm’s blog which is located atwww.valanduseconstructionlaw.com and may be reached at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  or by phone at 703-525-4000.