Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

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7 World Trade Center, considered New York City's first "green" office tower by gaining gold status in the US Green Building Council's LEED program.^[1]

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), provides a list of standards for environmentally sustainable construction.

1 Creation
2 Certification
3 LEED Versions
4 LEED Accreditation
5 See also
- 5.1 Compare to
6 References
7 External links and references

[edit] Creation

LEED was created to accomplish the following:

Define "green building" by establishing a common standard of measurement
Promote integrated, whole-building design practices
Recognize environmental leadership in the building industry
Stimulate green competition
Raise consumer awareness of green building benefits
Transform the building market

Green Building Council members, representing every sector of the building industry, developed and continue to refine LEED. The rating system addresses six major areas:

Sustainable Sites (14 possible points toward certification)
Water Efficiency (5)
Energy and Atmosphere (17)
Materials and Resources (13)
Indoor Environmental Quality (15)
Innovation and Design Process (4, plus 1 for having a LEED-accredited professional on the design team)

[edit] Certification

Different LEED versions have slightly varied scoring systems; other than LEED CS, the system allows for up to 69 points toward certification. Buildings can qualify for four levels of certification:

Certified - 26 to 32 points
Silver - 33 to 38 points
Gold - 39 to 51 points
Platinum - 52 to 69 points

LEED certification is obtained after submitting an application documenting compliance with the requirements of the rating system. Certification is granted solely by the Green Building Council responsible for issuing the LEED system used on the project.

Recently the application process for new construction certification has been streamlined electronically, via a set of active PDFs that automates the process of filing the documentation.

[edit] LEED Versions

Different versions of the rating system are available for specific project types:

LEED-NC: New construction and major renovations (the most commonly applied-for LEED certification)^[2]
LEED-EB: Existing buildings seeking LEED certification
LEED-CI: Commercial interior fitouts by tenants
LEED-CS: Core-and-shell projects (total building minus tenant fitouts)
LEED-H: Homes (pilot stage--to be released early 2007)
LEED-ND: Neighborhood development (drafting stage--to go into pilot late 2006, early 2007)

LEED has evolved since its original inception in 1998 to more accurately represent and incorporate emerging green building technologies. LEED-NC 1.0 was a pilot version. These projects helped inform the USGBC of the requirements for such a rating system, and this knowledge was incorporated into LEED-NC 2.0. The present version of LEED for new construction is LEED-NC v2.2 (Fall 2006). LEED also forms the basis for other sustainability rating systems such as the Environmental Protection Agency's Labs21.

LEED is a leading guide for green building in the United States and it is developed and continuously modified by experienced professionals in the green building industry to best meet its goals. Some criticism suggests that while the LEED rating system is sensitive to local environmental conditions, its checklist system does not vary by the local environmental conditions enough (for instance, a building in Maine would receive the same credit as a building in Arizona for water conservation, though the principle is more important in the latter case). Another complaint is that its certification costs require money that could be used to make the building in question even more sustainable. On the other hand, costs of registration and certification vary according to the size of the project in such a way that they are always a minimal financial commitment relative to the entire project costs.

The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) has also recently created their own version of LEED with the foundation based on LEED-NC 2.0. This document is called LEED Canada-NC v1.0.

[edit] LEED Accreditation

Anyone can become a LEED "Accredited Professional" by paying a fee and successfully completing an exam administered by the USGBC, however most people who become accredited are associated with the building industry such as architects, engineers, contractors and building owners.