What does LEED-Certified mean?

LEED™ is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System developed and administered by the U.S. Green Building Council, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community of leaders. The LEED Green Building Rating System™ encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.

LEED is a third-party certification program and 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 six areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, indoor environmental quality, and innovation and design process. While the pilot guidelines were introduced in 2000, they continue to be expanded and revised based on input from professionals throughout the building industry.

The LEED Rating Systems are updated through an open, consensus-based process led by volunteers, who collectively represent a diverse group of practitioners and experts in construction and environmental issues. The LEED Rating System awards a certain number of available points within each of the six areas of human and environmental health noted above. Depending on the number of points achieved, a building can attain Platinum, Gold, Silver, or LEED-Certified status.

For more information on LEED, including project certification guidelines, please visit the U.S. Green Building Council’s Web site, www.usgbc.org.