Thinking GREEN

So, as of 30 July 2010, I am officially GREEN MINDED.

I am now a USGBC LEED Green Associate. Wooopeeee!!!
So a lot of people are not yet aware of what USGBC and LEED are, especially if you are not in the construction/design field. All the more, what the heck is a LEED Green Associate?
To summarize, here’s an article from Wikipedia:

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Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies intended to improve performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED is intended to provide building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

Since its inception in 1998, the U.S. Green Building council (citation LEED for existing buildings v2.0 reference guide page pg 11) has grown to encompass more than 14,000 projects in the United States and 30 countries covering 1.062 billion square feet (99 km²) of development area.[1] The hallmark of LEED is that it is an open and transparent process where the technical criteria proposed by USGBC members are publicly reviewed for approval by the almost 20,000 member organizations that currently constitute the USGBC.

The Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) was established by USGBC to provide a series of exams to allow individuals to become accredited for their knowledge of the LEED rating system. This is recognized through either the LEED Accredited Professional(LEED AP) or LEED Green Associate (LEED GA) designation. GBCI also provides third-party certification for projects pursuing LEED.

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In short, it means you are a certified expert in designing environment friendly facilities.

I have wanted to take the certification exam since last year but was too afraid to do so. Although my company will pay for all the exam expenses, of course, I would want to pass the first try.

I have also been doing the LEED analyses in our projects so I pretty much know the concepts already so I have no excuse. My boss has been reminding me too many times already to take the exam but all I say is “yes Sir, next month.”

Until the time when I realized I have ample free time at work. I just finished submitting a project and pretty much have around 3 weeks of free time to study. So I did.

My plan was to schedule the exam 3 weeks after I was able to read the book at least 3 times. Did that happen? NO!

I was able to read the book 1.5 times. Yes, the 2nd time, I was just browsing. It’s a pain for me to read books. After 5 pages I take a break, go facebooking, and forget about the studying part. Haha. I did practice on the sample exams I have and took me 5 tries (taken inconsecutively, in between reading and studying phases) before I perfected it.

I was so confident that I wanted to take the exam the next day. I felt like I had all the concepts fresh in my memory. Typical self-doubting me, I schedule the exam a week after, so I thought I still have time to read the book one more time. Of course I didn’t do that either.

Exam day, I went to the testing center 3 hours early, to make sure I am on the right place. I went to lunch and studied a little more, then went for the exam.

It was a hundred questions, each question weighted differently. Passing score is 170/200 which is around 86%.

By the time I was on question 10, I had lost my confidence. I was doubtful I had it in the bag. Boy was the sample exam misleading! Darn sample exam was too easy. The actual exam contains ALL trick questions, analysis type of questions. I marked around 14 questions, questions which I had doubts on.

I finished reviewing my answers. Cilcked END.

Then the results page displayed. I can’t see any “CONGRATULATIONS” on the page so I was beginning to feel cold. Haha! I see the scores, the percentages, but don’t see any CONGRATULATIONS or YOU MADE IT!

Under the total score there was a tiny text saying “Result: PASS.” THAT’S ALL I NEEDED TO SEE!

I started packing up my things, pens, scrap paper and ID with a smile. WHEW! I can’t hide my smile that time. BIG WHEW!!!

Now, this certification exam is just part 1 of 2 exams. It is a stepping stone to become LEED Accredited Professional. Being a LEED Green Associate is just good for two years. With that, I better start my reviewing… AGAIN.