GA (Green Advantage) Certified Practitioner

[ruggercsc]

Does anyone know anything about this certification?  I had an employee asking about it for their Individual Development Plan.  It looks like a new certification.  The exam appears to be just 60 multiple choice questions and you need to get 36 correct to get your certification and costs $175 for a 5 year certification.

https://greenadvantage.org/

 

[ruggercsc]

I took and passed the Green Advantage Certified Practioner Exam on my lunch break today (the good thing is that I could see the test center from my window).

Exam Cost:  $175

Exam:  60 questions

Exam Time:  90 minutes.

Exam Study Material:  Study Guide that you could download or ask Green Advantage to email to you

There are other training opportunities that are linked on the Green Advantage Website.

I decided to get this certification in order to get a hypothetical LEED Innovation Point for a LEED “certifiable” project  for Design/Build contract that I am working on.  Green Advantage states that you can get a LEED Innovation credit of 30% of your work force is “Green Advantage Certified” and I want to make sure our design staff is certified. 

How I passed the exam:

1.     I signed up for an online study course for $88.00 from http://www.becominggreeninc.com/course.php?course=4.  The course was just going through pdf slides of sustainable topics.  I just really wanted the pdf’s slides to read on a plane when I was traveling.  I downloaded the pdf’s and read them on a plane and in my hotel room for site visit last week.  In all I studied about 5 hours and it really did not help.  I am already a LEED AP and have worked on a handful of LEED projects and more LEED “certifiable” projects.

2.      The exam was more difficult than I anticipated.  I have experience and was looking at questions based on actual experience and not looking at it from the “Green” POV.  If you take this test, make sure you have your Green POV hat on.

3.     I finished the exam in 41 minutes, then spent another 20 minutes answering the questions I skipped, then quickly reread the questions.  I did change some of the answers after I looked at them again.

4.     I hit submit and got a “PASSED” back immediately with my percent passing score (No survey of the exam facility).

Overall, I spent $263 and spent 5 hours studying for the exam.  The certification is valid for five years.  Recertification is only available by retesting, so I doubt I will be keeping this certification unless there is a valid reason for it.

 

[John QPE]

I've never heard of LEED awarding points for design staff that holds accreditation other than LEED AP w/ specialty.

 

[ruggercsc]

I've never heard of LEED awarding points for design staff that holds accreditation other than LEED AP w/ specialty.

Green Advantage and the LEED® Innovation Credit




 




The LEED Rating System recognizes the value of having a significant percentage of a project's supervisory workforce be Green Advantage Certified Practitioners (GACPs), and has approved a LEED Innovation Credit for eligible commercial projects registering under LEED-NC v2.2, LEED 2009 BD&C, and LEED v4.

Projects seeking LEED certification that wish to pursue the Innovation Credit have two options for additional guidance in developing bidding documents or specifications*:

1)    Use the Specification Requirements Guide Divisions 00 and 01.
2)    Use the Non-proprietary Specification for Workforce Certification (packaged as a single division).*

Regardless of whether a project is pursuing LEED certification, project teams can use the language in these specification documents to set a standard for green knowledge, best practices, and leadership.
Please note that interpretations of LEED Credits are determined solely by USGBC, not Green Advantage.  Additional information about the LEED Innovation Credit for Green Advantage can be found on the USGBC website at LI #5413.

Since this is Design-Build, I am making sure the designers have the certification as well as including this in the specifications. 

 

[John QPE]

Interesting.

I would be sure the reference the USGBC credit library as for credit requirements. It appears that you need 30% of the GC, and 30% of all subs to have this certification. That seems to be a lofty goal, IMO.

 

[ruggercsc]

Interesting.

I would be sure the reference the USGBC credit library as for credit requirements. It appears that you need 30% of the GC, and 30% of all subs to have this certification. That seems to be a lofty goal, IMO.

I am trying to get as many people working on the project as a GACA or GACP.  We will see if we can meet the requirement.