There have been a couple of developments recently that suggest the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is becoming more user friendly.
In October, USGBC announced that it was introducing a "simpler and more inclusive" membership structure, with dues options that will reduce the barrier to entry. The crux of the change is to replace the current dues structure, which involves relatively hefty dues set based on the number of people in an organization. Under the new structure, a member can elect one of three levels of membership packages that start at $300/year. (As someone who has been tasked with justifying the cost of the firm's involvement in USGBC, I can vouch that it will be much easier to get support for paying $300 than $3,500!)
More recently, the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI), which administers the LEED© Accredited Professionals program for the USGBC, revamped the Credential Maintenance Program (CMP). The new CMP is intended to make it easier to report continuing education required to maintain a LEED AP. Although there have been glitches in the reporting system as initially rolled out, once they are resolved completing the continuing education reporting requirements will indeed be easier. In addition, USGBC is offering six hours of LEED specific courses for free. To put this in context, generally during each two year reporting period a LEED AP must obtain 30 hours of credit, of which at least 6 hours must be LEED specific, in order to maintain the credential
Both are interesting developments for an organization that already has almost 13,000 members (which does not include individuals) and over 80,000 accredited LEED professionals.
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