LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, was formed by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) as a rating system for green buildings.
It 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.
The LEED green building certification program encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through a suite of rating systems that recognize projects that implement strategies for better environmental and health performance.
Think of the rating system like the nutrition label on a box of ceral: LEED provides the same kind of important detail about the green aspects of a building that, taken together, deliver higher performance. LEED points are awarded on a 100-point scale, and credits are weighted to reflect their potential environmental impacts. Additionally, 10 bonus credits are available, four of which address regionally specific environmental issues. A project must satisfy all prerequisites and earn a minimum number of points to be certified.
LEED provides building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.
Here’s a short video from ZDNet that talks about what is LEED?
For more information on LEED visit the USGBC site.
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What is LEED?
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
