This week the USGBC launched its long-awaited LEED Interpretations process and database. LEED Interpretations are like project-specific Credit Interpretation Rulings, but unlike those CIRs, they can be applied to multiple projects.
LEED project teams with a unique situation or a question not answered by existing LEED resources have had access to CIRs since 2009, but those CIRs have been limited, they weren’t public so other projects couldn’t learn from them, and they couldn’t be referenced as a precedent on another project by the same team.
USGBC heard these complaints but they needed to ensure that only CIRs truly deserving of influencing the LEED standards would do so, which is the aim of the LEED Interpretations process.