How to Become a LEED Certified Architect: Why and How-to

Does LEED AP actually imply something, or are they just additional letters that architects add to their titles to make them sound more respectable? Does the certificate matter for your job and credibility, or is it just a waste of time and money in a world when people are becoming more and more worried about the effects of the built environment on the environment?

What and how. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED. It is the most well-known and frequently utilized green-building rating system worldwide, according to the US Green Building Council (USGBC), the parent company of LEED. It looks at both broad issues, like the placement of a construction site, and specifics, such the composition of the carpet strands in the lobby.

Building projects must adhere to stringent guidelines and paperwork in order to achieve the four levels of LEED v4 certification: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The presence of a LEED plaque on a building signals to its residents and onlookers that it is a healthier and more environmentally friendly structure than similar structures.

Meanwhile, LEED accreditation is associated with the LEED rating system. It ensures that professionals have the knowledge they need to take a project through LEED certification and are well versed in the many aspects of green building.

You have two options for LEED credentialing: LEED Green Associate and LEED Accredited Professional (AP). Kelly Gearhart—a green building consultant, educator, and principal at Triple Green Building Group—breaks it down into three steps.

1. Prepare for, schedule, and take the LEED Green Associate exam.

“You can obtain study materials from the Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), which publishes a handbook for each of the LEED exams,” Gearhart says. Then, read through the materials on your own, join or form a study group, or take a course on the material. Exams are administered through a proctoring company called Prometric, which has testing centers in all major cities around the world.

2. Specialize in AP by project type.

If you have experience working on LEED projects, you may want to take the next step to LEED AP. Once you’ve taken the LEED Green Associate Exam, you can take the AP exam, which is tailored to a specific LEED rating system. The rating systems include LEED for Building Construction and Design (BD+C), Operations and Management (O+M), Interior Design and Construction (ID+C), Neighborhood Design (ND), and Homes.

“The type of work you do as an architect will dictate the kind of AP credential you should get,” Gearhart says. “And if you do multiple kinds of work, such as both building design and neighborhood master planning, you can get both the BD+C and ND credentials.”

There is no time span required between taking the LEED Green Associate Exam and the AP exams, as long as you keep your Green Associate credential active and current; you can schedule them back-to-back if you prefer. But you are required to pass both the LEED Green Associate Exam and the AP exam to obtain the LEED AP credential.

3. Maintain accreditation with continuing education.

To maintain your LEED Green Associate credential, you are required to get 15 continuing education (CE) hours every two years, three of which must be LEED specific. To maintain your AP credential, you must get 30 CE hours every two years, six of which must be LEED specific. LEED-specific hours must pertain to topics having to do with LEED certification, through education, project experience, authorship, and volunteering.

The Why and the Why Not.

In an age when green building has gone from being a catchphrase used by environmentalists to being more of a mainstream practice in architecture, having the LEED AP credential could mean the difference between landing a project or getting passed up. “More and more organizations require or prefer teams to include a LEED AP when applying for requests for proposals, whether it be in the private or public sector,” Gearhart says.

Vessela Valtcheva-McGee—an architect, green building consultant, educator, and managing partner of Triple Green Building Group—says that LEED AP is an attractive credential for job seekers. “LEED has a really good market uptake both in the U.S. and internationally,” she says. “So to have a LEED AP credential is definitely a plus for people looking to do work in emerging markets like China, India, and the Middle East, as well as here in the U.S.”

But getting the full LEED AP accreditation can cost between $400 and $550, so is it worth the money and ongoing time commitment? “At best, these green buildings perform no better and no worse on primary energy savings, making government policies requiring their construction a questionable mandate and raising questions about effective methods to reduce energy consumption in buildings,” says John H. Scofield, professor of Physics at Oberlin College and contributor to Brink News.

Meanwhile, architect and ArchDaily contributor Steve Mouzon says that LEED allows people to game the system (racking up easy points for the total LEED score), so a LEED-certified building may not be so green after all: “For example, you can score almost as many points by installing a bike rack as you can by preserving an entire historic building.”

Both Gearhart and Valtcheva-McGee agree that LEED AP is only the beginning of an ongoing learning process. “Getting the accreditation serves as a catalyst for many architects,” Valtcheva-McGee says. It gives them a broad overview of various aspects of green buildings and often motivates architects to go deeper into one aspect or another.

“There are many resources available to architects who want to learn more about a specific area of green building beyond obtaining and maintaining their LEED AP credential,” says Gearhart, who has worked closely with the GBCI. Other credentials include the Living Building Challenge, PEER, WELL, SITES, and GRESB.

So what does it mean to have LEED AP next to your name? At the very least, it reveals you know the basics about environmental and energy design. But it’s up to you to accept its invitation to leadership and take your knowledge of green building further in your practice.

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