LEED
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide.[4] Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of green buildings, homes, and neighborhoods, which aims to help building owners and operators be environmentally responsible and use resources efficiently.
For other uses, see Leed (disambiguation).
As of 2023 there were over 105,000 LEED-certified buildings and over 205,000 LEED-accredited professionals in 185 countries worldwide.[5]
In the USA, the District of Columbia consistently leads in LEED-certified square footage per capita,[6] followed in 2022 by the top-ranking states of Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, California, and Maryland.[5]
Outside the United States, the top-ranking countries for 2022 were Mainland China, India, Canada, Brazil, and Sweden.[7]
LEED Canada has developed a separate rating system adapted to the Canadian climate and regulations.
Some U.S. federal agencies, state and local governments require or reward LEED certification. This can include tax credits, zoning allowances, reduced fees, and expedited permitting. Offices, healthcare-, and education-related buildings are the most frequent LEED-certified buildings in the US (over 60%), followed by warehouses, distribution centers, retail projects and multifamily dwellings (another 20%).[8]
Studies have found that for-rent LEED office spaces generally have higher rents and occupancy rates and lower capitalization rates.
LEED is a design tool rather than a performance-measurement tool and has focused on energy modeling rather than actual energy consumption.[9] It has been criticized for a point system that can lead to inappropriate design choices and the prioritization of LEED certification points over actual energy conservation;[10][11] for lacking climate specificity;[11] for not sufficiently addressing issues of climate change and extreme weather;[12] and for not incorporating principles of a circular economy.[13] LEED v5 is projected to be published as of 1 January 2024[14] and may address some of the previous criticisms.[15][16]
Despite concerns, LEED has been described as a "transformative force in the design and construction industry".[10] LEED is credited with providing a framework for green building, expanding the use of green practices and products in buildings, encouraging sustainable forestry, and helping professionals to consider buildings in terms of the well-being of their occupants and as part of larger systems.[10]
Many U.S. federal agencies, states, and local governments require or reward LEED certification. As of 2022 the leading five states, based on certified square feet per capita were Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, California, and Maryland.[5]
Professional accreditation[edit]
The Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) describes its LEED professional accreditation as "demonstrat[ing] current knowledge of green building technologies, best practices" and the LEED rating system, to assure the holder's competency as one of "the most qualified, educated, and influential green building professionals in the marketplace."[125] Credentials include the LEED Green Associate and the various types of specialized LEED Accredited Professionals (AP).
Incentive programs[edit]
Many federal, state, and local governments and school districts have adopted various types of LEED initiatives and incentives.[137] Many local governments have adopted LEED incentive programs, which can include tax credits, tax breaks, density zoning bonuses, reduced fees, priority or expedited permitting, free or reduced-cost technical assistance, grants and low-interest loans.[138]
Cincinnati, Ohio, adopted a measure providing an automatic 100% real property tax exemption of the assessed property value for newly constructed or rehabilitated commercial or residential properties that earn a minimum of LEED Certified.[139] In Nevada, construction materials for a qualifying LEED building are exempt from local taxes. Pieces of construction that are deemed 'inseparable parts', such as concrete or drywall, qualify.[140] Maryland's High Performance Buildings Act (2008) requires all new public construction and renovations greater than 7,500 sq ft (700 m2) to meet LEED Silver standard or two Green Globes. Between 2009 and 2014, the state is required to fund half of the required additional cost for public school construction or renovation to attain that standard.[141]
In June 2013, USGBC announced a promotion called LEED Earth that refunds LEED certification fees to the first LEED-certified project in a country that doesn't have one.[142][143]
For existing buildings, LEED has developed LEED-EB. Research has demonstrated that buildings that can achieve LEED-EB equivalencies can generate a tremendous return-on-investment.[144]
Delaware currently has a Green Home Rebate incentive program that provides $1,000 – $4,500 rebates to certain new homes that achieve LEED certification.[145]
Hawaii also features a Priority Permit Processing for Green Buildings which requires each county agency that issues building, construction, or development-related permits to create a policy to provide free priority processing of permit applications for construction projects that integrate energy and environmental design building standards. Such buildings can qualify after being rated at LEED silver or similar a certification.[146]
Criticism[edit]
In 2005, Auden Schendler and Randy Udall, respectively a LEED-accredited professional who is the director of environmental affairs at the Aspen Skiing Company and a Colorado-based environmentalist, published an article titled "LEED is Broken; Let's Fix It", in which they criticized numerous aspects of the LEED certification process. They characterized as "costly, slow, brutal, confusing, and unwieldy ... that makes green building more difficult than it needs to be".[176] Schendler and Udall also identify an environmentalist fallacy which they call "LEED brain", in which the public relations value of LEED certification begins to drive the development of buildings.[177] Writer David Owen, in his book Green Metropolis, gives as an example of "LEED brain" the building by Gap Inc. of a green showcase building in San Bruno, California, that, in itself, was a paradigm of environmentally-friendliness, but by its location, 16 miles (26 km) from the company's corporate headquarters in downtown San Francisco, and 15 miles (24 km) from Gap's corporate campus in Mission Bay, was actually harmful to the environment by forcing Gap employees to drive more miles, and the addition of shuttle buses between the various buildings. Owen points out that "no bus is as green as an elevator".[178]
In his book Walkable City, city planner Jeff Speck provides another example of "LEED brain": the federal Environmental Protection Agency relocated its Region 7 Headquarters from downtown Kansas City, Missouri, to a LEED-certified building 20 miles (32 km) away in the suburb of Lenexa, Kansas, causing many of the agency's 627 employees to drive additional miles to and from work. Kaid Benfield of the Natural Resources Defense Council estimated that the carbon emissions associated with the additional miles driven were almost three times higher than before, a change from 0.39 metric tons per person per month to 1.08 metric tons of carbon dioxide per person per month. Speck writes that "The carbon saved by the new building's LEED status, if any, will be a small fraction of the carbon wasted by its location".[179]
Both Speck and Owen make the point that a building-centric standard such as LEED, which doesn't sufficiently account for the location in which the building stands, will inevitably undervalue the strong positive effect of people living closer together in cities, which are inherently environmentally efficient, especially when compared to the automobile-oriented sprawl.[179][180]
LEED standards have also been criticized for not actually creating energy efficient buildings. In 2013, The Washington Examiner analyzed energy efficiency data of New York City buildings and found that LEED-certified buildings actually performed worse than buildings in general.[181] An analysis by USA Today found that building makers target LEED's easiest points – those that don't necessarily increase the energy efficiency of a building.[10]