North Alabama Branch

Leed Projects

What is LEED®?

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System^TM provides nationally accepted benchmarks for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have immediate and measurable impacts 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 road map 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

* LEED for Schools
* LEED for Retail

USGBC is also developing LEED for Healthcare and LEED for Laboratories.

There is also a LEED Resources page, which has informative PowerPoint presentations, brochures and case studies, as well as LEED News and LEED-Online sample credit templates.

How Was 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. LEED is the green building standard of choice for Federal agencies and state and local governments nationwide.

What is LEED Certification?
The first step to LEED certification is to register your project. A project is a viable candidate for LEED certification if it can meet all prerequisites and achieve the minimum number of points to earn the Certified level of LEED project certification. 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 the 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.)

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 1-800-795-1747 or leedinfo@usgbc.org. Or visit:  http://www.usgbc.org/