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What is LEED®?
The Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™
is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and
operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners
and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable
impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED promotes a whole-building
approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas
of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water
savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental
quality.
LEED provides a roadmap
for measuring and documenting success for every building type and phase
of a building lifecycle. Specific LEED programs include:
- New Commercial
Construction and Major Renovation projects
- Existing Building
Operations and Maintenance
- Commercial Interiors
projects
- Core and Shell
Development projects
- Homes
- Neighborhood Development
- Guidelines for
Multiple Buildings and On-Campus Building Projects
USGBC is also developing
LEED for Schools, LEED Retail for New Construction, LEED Retail for Commercial
Interiors, and LEED for Healthcare.
How is LEED Developed?
The LEED Rating System was created to transform the built environment
to sustainability by providing the building industry with consistent,
credible standards for what constitutes a green building. The rating system
is developed and continuously refined via an open, consensus-based process
that has made LEED the green building standard of choice for Federal agencies
and state and local governments nationwide. Click here for more information
on the LEED Development Process.
What is LEED Certification?
The first step to LEED certification is to Register your project. To earn
certification, a building project must meet certain prerequisites and
performance benchmarks ("credits") within each category. Projects
are awarded Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum certification depending
on the number of credits they achieve. This comprehensive approach is
the reason LEED-certified buildings have reduced operating costs, healthier
and more productive occupants, and conserve our natural resources.
Note for Product Manufacturers
and Service Providers:
Although USGBC does not certify, promote, or endorse products and services
of individual companies, products and services do play a role and can
help projects with credit achievement. (Note that products and services
do not earn projects points.) Learn more here about how you and your company
can help advance green building, while also achieving your own environmental
and economic goals.
Who Can Use LEED?
Everyone: Architects, real estate professionals, facility managers, engineers,
interior designers, landscape architects, construction managers, lenders,
government officials...
The LEED program also
includes a full suite of training workshops and a Professional Accreditation
program to develop and encourage green building expertise across the entire
building industry.
Questions?
Contact LEED Customer Service at 202-742-3780 or leedinfo@usgbc.org.
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