The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently announced the third draft of LEED will be open for public comment beginning March 1. During this comment period, members of the industry may offer their thoughts on and suggested changes to the proposed language.

The USGBC explained that this third draft has been prompted by stakeholder-generated ideas, expert input and advances in technology. The draft is intended to improve technical stringency, measurement and performance tools, and better the user experience. Although the new language is not available yet, the press release notes that credit requirements have been rewritten to better align with documentation already required by the architecture and construction fields.

The press release indicates that the 2012 draft will focus on the long-term, enabling project owners and developers to focus on building performance in preparation for certification and tracking performance after the building has been certified.

The 2012 draft will also offer new language with an eye toward flexibility to make it easier for the international community to engage in LEED projects.

It will be interesting to see what the 2012 version of LEED looks like. Of course, it would also be nice if more LEED projects were moving forward.