by Brianna Crandall — February 7, 2011—The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) recently announced the release of revised agreements that are now available in LEED Online. These agreements were revised to provide an enhanced level of legal guidance for the leadership organizations that pursue the benefits that accompany LEED certification.
USGBC and GBCI sought the opinion of a wide range of legal counsel from architectural member firms, from GSA, and from others who practice construction law, many of whom are part of an informal USGBC legal working group. Revised language has now been incorporated into the Terms and Conditions for the Use of LEED Online Version 3, the LEED Project Registration Agreement, and the LEED Project Certification Agreement.
USGBC says perhaps the most significant of these is the creation of an agency form for design team members to use to show an agency relationship between themselves and the project owner. The form allows the project’s owner to appoint the design professional to sign the agreements only as the owner’s representative, thus relieving the design professional and his firm from obligations undertaken by the owner under the agreements.
Use of this form removes certain obligations from the project team, such as reporting requirements associated with LEED’s Minimum Performance Requirement 6, and assigns them to the owners, who are reportedly better able to ensure compliance with such requirements.
Other changes include streamlining the documents in more approachable terminology; standardizing agreements across various LEED programs and rating systems; providing more transparency in how these agreements are revised over time; further limiting and better describing how project information may be disclosed by GBCI and USGBC; and providing clearer guidance regarding how revisions to the rating systems and policy documents will affect projects.
LEED users are reminded that these agreements contain legally binding terms and conditions. Users are advised to read the terms thoroughly and to consult a lawyer as needed. Questions can be directed to GBCI via the Project Certification and Registration Contact GBCI form.
