Maintain Your LEED Credentials – Don’t Forget Continuing Education Hours

Congratulations! You are now a certified LEED professional! So how do you maintain your hard earned credentials? LEED professionals will need to fulfill continuing education (CE) hours or retake their LEED exam every two years. Some of those continuing education hours must be LEED specific. LEED Green Associates will require 15 hours of continuing education hours, of which three need to be LEED specific. LEED AP + specialties run 30 hours, of which six are LEED specific. For each additional LEED AP specialty you would like to work towards, it will take an additional six LEED specific continuing education hours.

 

 

With the many occupational options in the rapidly expanding green building field, it's important to maintain your LEED credentials to maximize your potential as well as keep you up to date on advances in technology and ideas that help keep our world a nice place. Keeping your knowledge at its peak is a great way to ensure that your work stays at its optimal levels, and shows your employers that you mean business. LEED Green Associates specializing in certain aspects of green building maintain their credentials through continuing education hours taking place every two years. LEED Green Associates are required to earn 15 continuing education hours, while LEED APs must earn 30 hours. There are many different ways to continue your life long LEED education, and they can be found by contacting the Canada Green Building Council.

 

 

There are different formats for many of the credential maintenance programs offered through CaGBC, the most common being in-class workshops. Other options include study-at-home programs and even courses offered through post-secondary institutions. Each course has different requirements for completion, and all can help you improve your knowledge base and better your ability to keep building green. Mandatory hours for maintenance vary by your current level, LEED Associate or LEED AP, but all courses fit under categories including:

Other ways to attain your mandatory continuing education hours include LEED project experience, authorship, and volunteer hours. LEED project experience will earn you one CE hour per credit, or two if you are the project administrator. Three hours can be earned by writing a published article, or ten for a published book. One hour of volunteering will earn you one hour of continuing education credit. It is important to note however that your volunteer hours cannot make up more than 50 per cent of your total required continuing education hours.

 

There are many ways to earn your continuing education hours that can fit easily into your day-to-day life - webinars, courses, workships and more! Building Lasting Change, the CaGBC's annual conference and expo can provide you  with all the CE hours you will need in just a few days. It's important that you remember to report and keep track of your hours. Just login to your account in Green Building Certification Institute's (GBCI) My Credentials section and follow the directions. Maintaining your LEED credentials is the best way to keep the title you've worked so hard to earn, and to ensure that your future in the green building industry is a bright one.