LEED Online is the tool LEED project teams use to manage the LEED registration and certification processes. The new version of LEED Online is designed to be faster, smarter and a better user experience. It is built to be scalable and more robust, both through improved design and a more intuitive user interface as well as through greater help capabilities, better communication between project teams and certifying bodies, and upgrades that respond to the changes in the LEED 2009 rating system. LEED Online now offers more functionality and improved reliability.
Projects registered under version 2
rating systems will continue to use LEED Online version 2.
New Functionality
The reinvention of LEED Online v3 enables a host of new functionality to make users’ lives easier and more productive. For starters, several project management improvements went live in April:
- Project organization: Any user who is a team member on more than one registered LEED project is now able to sort, view and group their projects according to a number of project traits, including location, design or management firm, etc. Further, projects with similar characteristics can be grouped on those traits and viewed from their own screen.
- Team member administration: The functionality for adding team roles, assigning them to team members, and making credit assignments is more flexible. Most notably, credits are assigned by team member name rather than by project role.
- Status indicators and timeline: The system explains and displays all the steps in the review and certification process more clearly, especially which steps a specific project has completed. The system displays specific dates associated with each phase and step, including the target dates on which each review will be returned to the customer.
Support for Certification Review and Submittals
In addition, the new version of LEED Online also offers many new features supporting the LEED certification review process itself, as well as enhancements to the functionality of submittal documentation and certification templates:
- End-to-end process support: The new system shepherds each project team through the entire certification process, from initial project registration through all review phases and through post-certification plaque fulfillment. The registration phase also includes extra help for beginners to decide which LEED rating system is best-suited to their project type, while allowing experienced users to get through the process quickly.
- Improved mid-stream communication: During a LEED review, a mid-review clarification page will allow the LEED reviewer to contact the project team through the system if any minor clarifications are needed to complete the review.
- Data linkages: Some data, such as a building’s gross floor area or FTE occupancy, are required in the documentation for several LEED credits. The new LEED Online shares such data within a project, auto-filling it in all appropriate places after the user enters it the first time. This saves the customer re-entry time and helps ensure project-wide consistency. Override options are available in case the values truly need to differ.
- Automatic data checks: A surprisingly large number of LEED applications arrive at USGBC with some required data not complete, causing process delays because of customer errors. The new system will alert users when this happens, giving them a final chance to correct the error before submitting the application.
- Progressive, context-based disclosure of content: Many LEED submittal templates have several options for completing the form, with the customer required to choose and complete only one of them. The new system shows only the data fields relevant to the customer’s situation once an option has been selected, hiding all the extraneous content. This will reduce customer confusion and submission errors. The full content is still available for viewing at the user’s option.
All these enhancements are possible because under the hood LEED Online v3 leverages technology used by the world’s leading companies – SAP and Adobe. In addition to delivering significant performance, functionality and usability enhancements, it allows continuous system improvement over time and provides a solid platform from which LEED can expand and grow for years to come.