First, I would like to explain why I was not planning on making the switch. When United States Green Building Council (USGBC) first announced the option of the Specialty tracks, it stated that all LEED AP's had the option to migrate into the new system or remain under the old system with Legacy status. Legacy AP's would remain valid and would continue to be eligible for the AP point under all rating systems. These benefits would not be revoked. The benefits of the new system seemed to be primarily marketing. I can advertise myself as an expert in a particular focus of green building such as Building Design and Construction and would get a fancy color logo that I can use by my name. As part of the specialty track, I would need to pay regular maintenance fees and meet continuing education requirements. The continuing education requirements are nearly identical to the ones that I take to maintain my architecture license, but are approved by a different organization and would have a different renewal period. I decided the color logo was not worth the additional fees and paperwork.
About a month ago, I attended an USGBC event. As I had recently receiving an email saying that the time to upgrade from LEED AP Legacy to a specialty track was about to expire, I asked several other attendees about their thoughts on upgrading to the specialty track. For the most part, the answers that I received were basically marketing purposes and reassuring the public about standards through continuing education. Those are both points that I believe are easily addressed in a brief conversation. One individual said that the USGBC was planning on devaluing the Legacy status and make it not longer eligible for points under the LEED rating system. We discussed how this was against what they said and agreed upon, but they were planning on doing it anyway. I filed this away, but felt that the agreement that LEED Legacy AP would be eligible for a LEED rating systems point for life would not be broken.
A couple of days ago, I realized that is not the case. On the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) FAQ site, I saw this.
"Are LEED APs without specialty still eligible for ID credit 2 on a LEED project?
LEED APs with and without specialty are all currently eligible to earn ID credit 2 on a LEED project. Since USGBC makes the LEED Rating Systems, it is USGBC’s decision if or when to change the Innovation & Design credit."
As the GBCI is a spinoff from the USGBC, this statement implies backtracking on the commitment that Legacy AP's would remain eligible for that credit. Reading the draft 2012 LEED rating standards, shows that the USGBC is planning on no longer permitting Legacy AP's from utilizing this point. This is the proposed language for utilizing this credit. It is from page 12 of the clean version of the Building Design and Construction standards.
"At least one (1) principal participant of the project team shall be a LEED Accredited Professional (AP) with a specialty most appropriate for the project."
My deadline for upgrading from Legacy to specialty track is in September. If I maintain my Legacy status, I will need to prepared to not only provide comments on every LEED rating system for the next 25 years of my career, but to raise enough outcry from other Legacy AP's to force the USGBC to honor their agreement with the Legacy AP's. I have decided to make the switch and upgrade to a specialty track. I also encourage other Legacy AP's to take this under consideration before their two year "enrollment window" closes.
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