The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has opened the proposed update to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System for its first public-comment period. The public-comment period, which will close on Dec. 31, is the next step in the continuous-improvement process and ongoing development of the LEED program.

The proposed update builds on LEED 2009, discussing the alignment and weighting of credits. It also advances the “bookshelf” framework in which credits are applied to specific building types. Additionally, the update places an increased emphasis on integrated processes and building performance.

“Additionally, USGBC is enhancing the process we use to collect and respond to stakeholder feedback on the ideas presented in the public-comment drafts of LEED,” Scot Horst, senior vice president of LEED, USGBC, said.

Besides the public-comment Web pages at www.usgbc.org, the USGBC also will take feedback from projects testing pilot credits, use input from a moderated forum dedicated to discussing the evolution of LEED, and accept comments from various Webinars. The USGBC intends this public-comment process to be generative in nature and expects a wide-ranging dialog throughout the process.