You may remember a post from February back where I noticed the USGBC reported a decline in membership on their Member Update newsletters. I noticed today that that membership has declined further, dropping to 16,380 from a peak of 20,000 reported in January 2010.
It's worth noting that I've seen no indications that LEED registrations or personal accreditations are declining, and as we've seen before residential LEED certifications are growing very rapidly. As always, I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on why this decline continues... is it just the poor economy or something more?
My guess? Probably a few things:
ReplyDelete1. Poor economy
2. Some people may be questioning the value of membership.
3. Over saturation - there's really not a need for dozens of LEED APs on a project.
4. Over saturation - Everyone rushed out to get certified back when money was flowing. But there are only so many people in the design/build business. Only so many people for USGBC to market to.
There has been a large drop in LEED registrations this year, which is not surprising since there are very few new construction starts.
ReplyDelete"Nationally, there were 10,498 registered projects in 2009, and only 3,071 so far in 2010." (As of July 2010).
http://www.greenbuildinglawupdate.com/2010/07/articles/another-category/green-building-registrations-decline-in-2010/
Keep up the good work.
There's a trend at our firm to hire consultants to certify rather than doing it in house. Result: a lot of new LEED APs with nothing to do. Perhaps folks are just allowing their memberships to lapse due to the lack of work.
ReplyDeleteThe new LEED v.3 maintenance requirements are ridiculous for many smaller firm architects. Specifically, the requirement to work on a LEED project. Architects who are LEED AP certified do not want to jump into the v.3 ring because of this. Architects seeking certification for the first time are put off by the requirement to work on a LEED project to keep membership status valid. We all want to work on LEED projects but its not fair to "punish" those who passed the exam,are willing to keep current, but didn't have the opportunity to work on a LEED project.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the reasons mentioned, LEED is no longer new and what had once been a competitive edge is no longer one. The result will likely be a permanent downturn in LEED registrations. LEED 2009 was also not a very ambitious update and is not much different than LEED 2.0 from 2000. Without significant changes that respond to the lessons learned over time, LEED has become quite stale. I would be interested to find out the rate of growth of LEED-APs as well. With the new two tier system and the maintenance costs, I suspect the numbers have fallen dramatically. Any info on this situation?
ReplyDeleteEveryone initially rushed out to get certified, contractors, space planners, vendors for furniture, etc.
ReplyDeleteRealistically, everyone does not need to be certified, plus with the two tier test, unless you are going to be involved with LEED frequently it would not be worth the effort to get certified.
I wonder how other similar groups are doing like Green Globes?
Honestly, Leeds certification has become a labyrinth. The USGB and Leeds sites are not user freindly. It seems to cater to large companies, not small, which is a shame.
ReplyDeleteUSGBC seems to be morphing into a 'money machine', more interested in inventing new ways to generate revenue than in delivering a service to the industry.
ReplyDeleteTo clarify; you are talking about membership, not accreditation or certification?
ReplyDeleteI represent one of the companies that is no longer a member. We dropped our membership due to the cost, lack of apparent benefit for membership and fiscal restraint due to the economy. I find there is more benefit being a member of my local USGBC Chapter which is very active.
Haven't you heard? The game has changed. The arguement for man-made global warming, which LEED and USGBC were formed to address, has been exposed as a hoax and a fabrication.
ReplyDelete@anonymous posting at 7:12
ReplyDeletewhat's an 'Arguement', mate?
perhaps the reason you buy into this bogus argument is your obvious lack of basic comprehension and grammar?
I think some of the other commenters noted good reasons why membership may be declining.
ReplyDeleteIt's worth noting that USGBC membership is only for firms or companies, not individuals. The number of LEED APs out there, referenced by some commenters, is a different matter.
– Tristan Roberts
Editor, LEEDuser
Membership fees may be reasonable for large firms -- but even the lowest tier fee is way above my earnings level as a sole practitioner.
ReplyDeleteI'm working to maintain my LEED accreditation, since it's necessary to do LEED projects, and LEED is what clients are asking for right now - but personally I have very little but ill will for the USGBC. As others have mentioned, the registration process is horrible, the usefulness of the web sites sucks - I mean, really, the LEED 3.0 site doesn't work in Firefox?? Furthermore you have the CIR debacle from a year or two back, which they tried to justify the best they could using various weasel words - but what it all came down to was that they didn't want the constraint of having their rulings looked at for consistency.
ReplyDeleteI see the ASHRAE building efficiency standard ramping up, and I pray to the FSM that it will crush LEED like a bug. Somehow I just trust ASHRAE so much more than the USGBC.
I got an email from USGBC saying that if I renew our company membership before the end of the year we'll get 15 months for the price of 12 months. I wonder how much more their membership has decreased.
ReplyDelete