Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)

By John Linnemann, Aedi Construction

Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in 2000, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification has become an iconic benchmark for green construction and development in the United States. Surging in popularity in recent years as a result of increased benefits along with growing public concern for the environment, green building standards are now widely embraced by local governments and incorporated into ordinances governing development. In a recent survey of U.S. cities, four out of five municipalities cited sustainability as one of their top five priorities. Washington D.C. and Boston have already enacted codes requiring all new private developments larger than 50,000 square feet achieve the minimum LEED standard, while San Francisco has also begun requiring new commercial structures over 5,000 square feet to be LEED certified.

 With such tremendous response to its LEED initiative, the USGBC has recently revamped the certification standards to address the current social and market realities. As of June 27, 2009, all construction projects seeking LEED certification must adhere to the LEED v3 guidelines. A detailed breakdown of the point rating system for new construction and major renovations projects, the goal of individual changes, and requirements for achieving certification are provided by the U.S. Green Building Council on their website.

 LEED v3 retains the same four certification levels, Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, but has adjusted the scoring criteria for each level to a 100 point scale. Although each credit category contains the same number of total points available, the points required for each level of certification are the same regardless of the building type. Bonus points have also been adopted for ‘Regional Priority’ for certain credits deemed to be of particular importance to a given geographic region. In addition, the allocation of points available under LEED v3 has changed to give more weight to those credits deemed to be of greater value, including increased energy efficiency, renewable energy, access to public transportation, and water conservation.

 One of the major changes under LEED v3, in direct response to criticism over a lack of accountability once a building had been certified, is the new requirement that all projects seeking certification “must commit to sharing with the USGBC and/or GBCI all available whole-project energy and water usage data for a period of at least five years.” The goal is to provide the USGBC the crucial, real-world, data needed to develop its standards. However, under LEED 2009, LEED-certified buildings are still not required to actually meet their forecasts for reduced energy and water consumption in order to maintain their certification.

 How Does This Affect Me?

Important Points About LEED Projects

For Professionals in the Green Building Industry