At the very end of last year (December 23, to be exact), GBCI quietly added a series of “Submittal Tip Sheets” to the Resources section of their website (here). These tip sheets were written by GBCI reviewers for most of the common rating systems and are meant to be sort of helpful reminders for a successful submission for each prerequisite and credit in that rating system. These tip sheets are currently available for LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance versions 2008 and 2009, LEED for New Construction versions 2.2 and 2009, LEED for Commercial Interiors versions 2 and 2009, LEED for Core and Shell versions 2 and 2009, and LEED for Schools versions 2007 and 2009.

I’ve reviewed a couple of these tip sheets and while I don’t think they contain any really helpful insights that can’t be gleaned from the LEED Reference Guides I think that the simple format make them a good resource for project teams feeling overwhelmed by all the submission requirements. The bottom line is that nothing beats having a couple LEED reviews under your belt for getting a feel for what the GBCI reviewers really want to see, but if you don’t have that experience, these tip sheets could definitely be helpful.