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LEED

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

integrated environmental sustainability

LEED is a certification best known in the United States, but supported by many Green Building Councils all over the world. GBC Italia is the first country outside of North America to convert the rating system into a regionally specific certification scheme – LEED Italia. This certification scheme uses an integrated approach to environmental sustainability of the entire project, including the site, water consumption, and recycled content in building materials. Emu Architect’s Mariana Pickering is a LEED Accredited Professional with experience in both the original American and new Italian version of the New Construction rating scheme.

LEED BD&C AP Logo

some of our articles about LEED:

  • LEED CMP | Review of Everblue’s ‘Green Labeling’ Live Webinar (11/16/2011) - This evening's live webinar from Everblue was entitled 'Green Labeling', a summary of green product labels. The goal of this presentation was to not only introduce various certification schemes for "green" products, but also to define what some of the criteria are for determining their "green-ness" as well as identify a few of the organizations responsible for certifying them.
  • LEED CMP | Review of Everblue’s ‘Carbon Accounting’ Live Webinar (10/12/2011) - Today I sat in on the live webinar 'Carbon Accounting', offered by Everblue as continuing education credits towards my LEED Accredited Professional credential. The goals of this presentation were to understand greenhouses gases, carbon accounting, and then identify what parts of the LEED rating system are affected by these concepts.
  • LEED CMP | Review of Everblue’s ‘Life Cycle Analysis’ On-Demand Webinar (8/23/2011) - Yesterday I was able to complete an on-demand webinar class by Everblue in order to complete my Continued Education hours for my LEED AP BD&C credential. This one was called 'Life Cycle Anaslysis', and satisfied 2 hours in the 'Acquisition, Installation and Management of Project Materials' portion of required subjects...
  • LEED CMP | Review of Everblue’s ‘Basics of Solar’ Live Webinar (8/18/2011) - Last night I started with first of many Everblue webinars I will be doing over the next couple of weeks in order to complete my Continued Education hours for my LEED AP BD&C credential. This one was called 'Basics of Solar', and satisfied 2 hours in the 'Project Systems and Energy Impacts' portion of required subjects. My general impression of the course was...
  • “Green BIM” webinar | GRAPHISOFT EcoDesigner (3/1/2011) - We took part in the webinar "Green" BIM - Low Energy Building Design for New Projects and Retrofits with GRAPHISOFT EcoDesigner", organized by Graphisoft to present Ecodesigner, the energy evaluation add-on for ArchiCad.
  • Casa Clima Class A Certification and LEED Gold Project “Castra Maiora” in Casalmaggiore (1/19/2011) - Since 2008, we have been part of the technical staff for Castra Maiora, a residential building project in Casalmaggiore (CR) The innovative concept is to combine together for the first time in Italy an energy Class A certification from CasaClima with a LEED Gold environmental certification from Green Building Council Italia.
  • Study Resources for the LEED AP Exam (1/18/2011) - As LEED grows in popularity, so do the numbers of LEED Accredited Professionals... and therefore the resources available to them. Back when I took the LEED AP exam in the summer of 2009, I created a blog to help myself focus on studying and hold myself accountable. It was called 'Somewhere Down the Line'. Now that my focus is on maintaining my credentials through continuing education, I've decided to move all relevant information here to our Emu blog in the hopes of providing information for other LEED APs trying to maintain their credentials from international locations. One of the big hits on my old blog was my study aids list, so I thought I would go ahead and include that here for anyone starting out on their studies...
  • Passive House Conference 2011 (1/14/2011) - With certifications like LEED and Casa Clima becoming more mainstream, the green movement is constantly looking for something to push the envelope. The Passive House movement is one that is quickly gaining recognition in the green building industry as the highest achievement possible for a design. Unfortunately, the prohibitively high price tag on the entry fee for the conference calls attention to the lucrative business of certifications and the difficulties small businesses face in joining such movements.
  • GBCI Announces New Professional Credential – LEED Fellow (11/9/2010) - This week, Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) announced via a newsletter to existing LEED Accredited Professionals its newest professional credential for the world of LEED - the LEED Fellow. Through a nomination and review process, this program hopes to create an elite class of LEED experts.
  • LEED, Itaca, Casa Clima Conference by Agape (9/25/2010) - We recently took part in the LEED, CASACLIMA, ITACA conference, organized by Aghape last Thursday, September 16th in Castel San Pietro Terme (Bologna). Entry ticket: € 30,00 + VAT per person. It seems as though this would have been an event not to miss. The organizer sold it as a "workshop and round table" featuring all major companies that certify sustainable architectural design in Italy today. It was going to be the first event of this kind ever organized in our country, bringing together all the institutions that want to guarantee quality in design and construction. It would have been a chance to finally send a well-defined message to the building industry and to the market, now that everything seems to be flooded with green wash. This event could have given a steady signal where the central national government is totally missing.
  • Mariana Pickering of Emu Architects Becomes a LEED Accredited Professional (6/13/2009) - Last week Emu's own Mariana Pickering took and passed the LEED AP exam at the Thompson Prometric center in Milan. Her trials and tribulations throughout the studing process can be viewed on her study blog - Somewhere Down the Line. Now that USGBC has rolled out the new version of LEED, the next step for Mariana will be to complete enough CE credits to maintain a BD&C specialization.
  • LEED AP exam NC v2.2 | study aids (5/25/2009) - Here's a list of the resources I used to help me study. Scroll down for a complete of other resources people have suggested to me. Also, please check out the comments to see people's reviews of study resources and leave your own opinions.
  • Emu Joins USGBC and Studies for LEED AP Exam (4/2/2009) - A couple of months ago Emu Architects became proud members of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). Yes, we are located in Italy. However, LEED (USGBC's building certification program) is rapidly becoming recognized as an international standard for building certification. In fact, LEED Italy is in the process of starting up as we speak. In addition, in the future we hope to be able to serve foreign and local investors and homeowners alike.
  • Emu Architects officially commutes (3/31/2009) - Yesterday was the Official Move In Day of Emu Architects, and the first of many long commutes. Every morning and every evening from now on, Enrico Bonilauri and Mariana Pickering, will have to trek the 53 meters from home to work and back again. We thought we would take this opportunity to point out some of the consequences of commuting to work via more conventional modes of transportation.