The Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED™) Program
By Charles Popeck

In June of 2000 the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) introduced the 2.0 version of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™) Green Building Rating System for commercial, institutional, and high-rise residential buildings. LEED evaluates environmental performance from a "whole building" perspective over a building's life cycle. The program has grown tremendously since then by proving itself a viable method of providing a third-party green building certification tool designed to ensure building owners and occupants that their building meets stringent standards of performance.

What is LEED?
The LEED green building rating system is a credit-based program that guides architects through the design of an environmentally sound building. A LEED building can achieve four different levels of certification based on the number of points obtained. The four levels of certification available and corresponding LEED points are:

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

Detailed information on all possible credits can be obtained on the USGBC website at www.usgbc.org. Credits towards building certification must be achieved in each of five environmental categories:

Sustainable Sites
Topics such as erosion and sedimentation control, site selection, Brownfield redevelopment, stormwater management, and light pollution reduction are addressed in this category. Basic strategies include site selection, onsite stormwater control, reduced site disturbance and alternative transportation.

Water Efficiency
A particularly applicable category in the desert southwest region is water efficiency. The water efficiency category offers credits for water efficient landscaping, innovative wastewater technologies, and water use reduction.

Energy & Atmosphere
With three prerequisites and six credits available, the Energy and Atmosphere category offers more points than any other-a total of 17. There are four fundamental strategies used in this category to increase energy performance, reduce energy demand, utilize any available site energy (including renewable energy sources such as solar and wind), and maximize energy efficiency. Various energy standards are referenced in this category. Cumulative points are achieved by exceeding the standards by 20 percent, 30 percent etc.

Materials & Resources
The strategies that are applied in this category include using products made from post-consumer or post-industrial waste materials. Products that are recyclable themselves, not just made from recycled materials are also considered. Additionally, materials and resources obtained within a 500 mile radius of the project site are used to reduce the amount of fuel required to transport materials to the site.

Indoor Environmental Quality
Using products free of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) is one of the basic strategies employed in this category. Paints and coatings, carpeting, and other interior finish products are also addressed. Building ventilation is also a major component in this category. Owners can avoid a growing amount of litigation due to "sick building syndrome" by incorporating these strategies into their buildings.

A sixth LEED category, "Innovation and Design Process" awards points toward certification for innovative applications of materials or processes that do not fit into any of the other five categories. Included in this category in the credit that the project receives for having a LEED Accredited Professional as a member of the project team.

New LEED programs now include:

LEED Version 2.1 is an administrative update to LEED Version 2.0. It is designed to streamline the documentation requirements for LEED certification and provides technical clarifications to version 2.0.

LEED for Existing Buildings, released in June of 2002 as a pilot program, provides a way of recognizing and certifying existing buildings that are being renovated in an energy efficient and environmentally responsible manner. LEED-EB is a program designed to compliment the LEED version 2.0 and provides existing building owners with a way to meet their sustainable operations goals. There are currently over 60 projects participating in the pilot phase of LEED-EB. The LEED Rating System for Existing Buildings addresses: