The Green Ox Explains LEED AP...

Hello Greenies! The Green Ox here, coming to you live from the cyberPasture to report on LEED AP certification...

Yesterday I was at Greenbucks getting my daily dose of energy, when I overheard a Dumb Cow pontificating, " I am a GREEN designer. I only design for people who shop at Whole Foods and smoke American Spirits. You know they don't additives. It's a healthy cigarette. Also, I find that my organic cotton tie-dye has really improved my "Laugh Baby Cow" pose in yoga class."

Being inherently grumpy...and considering it was prior to my wheatGrass double skinny latte... ...like my mother with TERRORrats (a mild cow disorder characterized by verbal onslaughts) , I yelped, "O SHUT UP! Dumb cow!" He was silent.

"First of all, a baby cow is a calf. So, it would be a Laughing Calf pose. Second of all, you don't have a clue what you are talking about."

This Dumb Cow answered to the name, Yuppy, and swiftly showed me his cotton tie-dye in action. While on his back, in what I can assume was Laughing Calf pose, he insisted that he could "go deeper" in his stretch.

After I unintentionally examined his tender parts, I spoke.

"I was talking about being a GREEN designe, Dumb Cow. Are you LEED AP certified?"

He sat up, tucked himself back and said, "no."

"Well, Dumb Cow who answers to the name Yuppie. Let me inform you." I sat with him as we sipped our lattes and explained.

LEED AP is a professional credential that was developed to encourage green building professionals to maintain and advance their knowledge and expertise. A LEED Credential provides employers, policymakers, and other stakeholders with assurances of an individual’s current level of competence and is the mark of the most qualified, educated, and influential green building professionals in the marketplace. All the LEED Professionals require adherence to the LEED Professional Disciplinary and Exam Appeals Policy and require ongoing credential maintenance requirements either through continuing education and practical experience or through biennial retesting. Starting in 2009, newly credentialed individuals must maintain their credential on a two-year cycles; if not, they expire. LEED Professionals can specialize in the following: * LEED AP Building Design + Construction * LEED AP Homes * LEED AP Interior Design + Construction * LEED AP Neighborhood Development [coming in 2010] * LEED AP Operations + Maintenance To earn your LEED AP credentials you must take an exam. The LEED AP exams consist of two parts, the LEED Green Associate exam and the applicable LEED AP specialty exam; each part contains 100 randomly delivered multiple choice questions and each part must be completed in 2 hours. Individuals must score at least 170 out of 200 in order to pass. While the LEED Green Associate focuses on concepts and terminology, the LEED AP with Specialty exam tests a candidate's in-depth understanding of one of the five main rating system categories. Candidates have to memorize performance thresholds (percentages of energy savings for example) and perform calculations during the exam. It does cost you some money. The fees associated with the LEED AP exams are a $100 application fee, a $300 exam fee (per exam appointment) for USGBC national members or $450 exam fee (per exam appointment) for non-members for the combined exam and a $150 exam fee (per exam appointment) for USGBC national members or $250 exam fee (per exam appointment) for non-members for the specialty exam only, and a $50 biennial CMP renewal fee. They are working to expand the LEED credential program. Some certificates under development, both expected for release in 2010: * LEED for Homes Green Rater [coming in 2010] * LEED Reviewer [coming in 2010] Future professional certificates are planned for healthcare, schools, and retail.

"How's that Yuppie? Sound like something you would like to work towards?"

Yuppie replies, "You better believe it....it's like the cosmos delivered you to me...When I was meditating the other day driving my Range Rover, I astrally-projected myself into the future, to this very Greenbucks, and Coldplay was playing, and I knew...."

"O SHUT UP YOU DUMB COW THAT ANSWERS TO THE NAME 'YUPPIE'!!!!!"

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