The LEED Platinum plaque at the Brock Environmental Center in Virginia Beach. While the project preceded the pilot credits on Resilient Design, it would have been able to meet the credits without too much difficulty. Photo: Alex Wilson
The LEED Platinum plaque at the Brock Environmental Center in Virginia Beach. While the project preceded the pilot credits on Resilient Design, it would have been able to meet the credits without too much difficulty. Photo: Alex Wilson

Following completion of the LEED pilot credits on Resilient Design last year, those of us who worked on them have remained involved in advancing the credits. We’ve worked on getting the word out about the credits. We’ve responded to questions that have come in about them. We’ve tracked projects using the credits. And we’ve discussed tweaks to the credits and how they could be adapted to other LEED products (such as LEED for Homes and LEED for existing Buildings).

With all this ongoing effort, we thought it would make sense to establish a standing LEED Resilience Working Group at the U.S. Green Building Council to carry out this work, and we proposed that idea to the USGBC. I’m pleased to report that the LEED Steering Committee approved our proposal to establish such a Working Group.

Volunteers sought

In keeping with USGBC policies, when committees and working groups are established, membership in those groups is opened up to USGBC members, and there is a process to select among applicants in filling those committees and working groups.

That’s where we are right now. An announcement about the Resilience Working Group was posted on the USGBC website at the end of May, and members have until June 30th to apply for membership on the Working Group. I understand that over 20 applications have so far come in.

There are no guarantees as to whom will be chosen for the Working Group, but if you’re interested, take a look at the notice that is posted online. The application takes a bit of time to complete, but it isn’t too onerous.

If I end up on the Working Group, I’ll look forward to ongoing participation in these important discussions. I’m excited about the tremendous response to the invitation—even though it will make the selection process pretty difficult for the LEED Steering Committee.

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Along with founding the Resilient Design Institute in 2012, Alex is founder of BuildingGreen, Inc. To keep up with his latest articles and musings, you can sign up for his Twitter feed. To receive e-mail notices of new blogs, sign up at the top of the page.

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