What is LEED Certification
LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party
verification that a building or community was designed and built using
strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter
most: 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 provides building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying
and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction,
operations and maintenance solutions.
LEED is flexible
enough to apply to all building types - commercial as well as residential. It works throughout the building
lifecycle - design and construction, operations and maintenance, tenant fitout,
and significant retrofit. And LEED for Neighborhood Development extends the
benefits of LEED beyond the building footprint into the neighborhood it serves.
What LEED Measures
LEED is a
voluntary certification program that can be applied to any building type and
any building lifecycle phase. It promotes a whole-building approach to
sustainability by recognizing performance in key areas:
Sustainable
Sites
Choosing a
building's site and managing that site during construction are important
considerations for a project's sustainability. The Sustainable Sites category
discourages development on previously undeveloped land; minimizes a building's
impact on ecosystems and waterways; encourages regionally appropriate
landscaping; rewards smart transportation choices; controls stormwater runoff;
and reduces erosion, light pollution, heat island effect and
construction-related pollution.
Water Efficiency
Buildings are
major users of our potable water supply. The goal of the Water Efficiency
credit category is to encourage smarter use of water, inside and out. Water
reduction is typically achieved through more efficient appliances, fixtures and
fittings inside and water-wise landscaping outside.
Energy & Atmosphere
According to
the U.S. Department of Energy, buildings use 39% of the energy and 74% of the
electricity produced each year in the United States. The Energy &
Atmosphere category encourages a wide variety of energy strategies:
commissioning; energy use monitoring; efficient design and construction;
efficient appliances, systems and lighting; the use of renewable and clean sources
of energy, generated on-site or off-site; and other innovative strategies.
Materials & Resources
During both
the construction and operations phases, buildings generate a lot of waste and
use a lot of materials and resources. This credit category encourages the
selection of sustainably grown, harvested, produced and transported products
and materials. It promotes the reduction of waste as well as reuse and
recycling, and it takes into account the reduction of waste at a product's
source.
Indoor Environmental Quality
The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Americans spend about 90% of
their day indoors, where the air quality can be significantly worse than
outside. The Indoor Environmental Quality credit category promotes strategies
that can improve indoor air as well as providing access to natural daylight and
views and improving acoustics.
Locations & Linkages
The LEED for
Homes rating system recognizes that much of a home's impact on the environment
comes from where it is located and how it fits into its community. The
Locations & Linkages credits encourage homes being built away from
environmentally sensitive places and instead being built in infill, previously
developed and other preferable sites. It rewards homes that are built near
already-existing infrastructure, community resources and transit, and it
encourages access to open space for walking, physical activity and time spent
outdoors.
Awareness & Education
The LEED for
Homes rating system acknowledges that a green home is only truly green if the
people who live in it use the green features to maximum effect. The Awareness
& Education credits encourage home builders and real estate professionals
to provide homeowners, tenants and building managers with the education and
tools they need to understand what makes their home green and how to make the
most of those features.
Innovation in Design
The
Innovation in Design credit category provides bonus points for projects that
use new and innovative technologies and strategies to improve a building's
performance well beyond what is required by other LEED credits or in green
building considerations that are not specifically addressed elsewhere in LEED.
This credit category also rewards projects for including a LEED Accredited
Professional on the team to ensure a holistic, integrated approach to the
design and construction phase.
Regional Priority
USGBC's
regional councils, chapters and affiliates have identified the environmental
concerns that are locally most important for every region of the country, and
six LEED credits that address those local priorities were selected for each
region. A project that earns a regional priority credit will earn one bonus
point in addition to any points awarded for that credit. Up to four extra
points can be earned in this way.
