Green Building

The basic elements of green building include:

• Sensitive site and land use
• Resource conservation during material selection and construction
• Avoidance of toxic substances and toxic releases
• Minimization of direct and indirect environmental damage
• Use and reuse of materials with:
• Recycled content
• Renewable/rapidly renewable material
• Low embodied energy use materials
• Local regional materials
• Climate appropriate materials
• Wood products from sustainable forests

LEED: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

Helping to promote green building and drive an increase in its adoption, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) established the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System, a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable "green" buildings. Through its use as a design guideline and third-party certification tool, it aims to improve occupants' well-being, environmental performance and economic returns of buildings using established and innovative practices, standards and technologies.

LEED evaluates buildings according to sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality.  Within these credit areas, points are available. The number of points a project earns determines the level of certification the building will be awarded. There are four progressive levels of certification: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

LEED standards are currently available or under development for:

• New commercial construction and major renovation projects
• Existing building operations
• Commercial interiors projects
• Core and shell projects
• Homes
• Schools
• Neighborhood development

In addition, LEED application guides are in development to provide information and instruction about applying the LEED rating system to different building types such as campuses, retail, labs, healthcare and schools.

LEED was created to:

• Define "green building" by establishing a common standard of measurement
• Promote integrated, whole-building design practices
• Recognize environmental leadership in the building industry
• Stimulate green competition
• Raise consumer awareness of green building benefits
• Transform the building market

LEED provides a complete framework for assessing building performance and measuring sustainability goals.  Based on well-founded scientific standards, LEED emphasizes state of the art strategies for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

Source: United States Green Building Council (USGBC)