Building Green, Building LEED: What Does It Mean?

So you've been hearing the LEED word around quite a bit lately, right? It is an acronym associated with green building and eco-friendly building. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. As you may know, support for green buildings has increased rapidly each year over the last five years.

There are two LEED certifications. There is LEED (for buildings), and then there is LEED AP (Accredited Professional) - two distinct certifications administered by the U.S. Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI).

LEED certification is the recognized standard for measuring building sustainability. The Green Building Council is a Washington D.C.-based, nonprofit coalition of building industry leaders. It was designed to promote design and construction practices that increase profitability while reducing the negative environmental impacts of buildings and improving occupant health and well-being.

The LEED Green Building Rating System is a voluntary, consensus-based national rating system for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. LEED addresses all building types and emphasizes state-of-the-art strategies in five areas: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials and resources selection, and indoor environmental quality.

LEED AP professional is a credentialing program was developed to encourage green building professionals to maintain and advance their knowledge and expertise. LEED-accredited professionals range from architects, consultants, engineers, product marketers and environmentalists to other building industry professionals around the country.

The LEED rating system offers four certification levels for new construction -- Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum -- and divides building into five categories:

Sustainable Sites

Water Conservation

Energy & Atmosphere

Materials & Resources

Indoor Environmental Quality

Many cities and states either provide tax credits or grants for green buildings, or require green building certification for public buildings. The U.S. government is adopting LEED or similar green building standards for the General Services Administration (which owns or leases over 8300 buildings), the U.S. Army, the Department of State, the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Eight states including California, New York, Oregon, and Washington have adopted LEED for public buildings. Many agencies are requiring LEED silver certification as a minimum.

Thirteen countries have expressed interest in LEED including China and India; these countries have exceptionally high levels of new building construction.

Questions? Or just want to chat about an upcoming project that you're considering? Email owner Chris Matey.
**************************************************************
We service Boston, North Shore, North of Boston, including but no limited to Andover, Belmont, Beverly, Boston (Back Bay, South End), Brookline, Cambridge, Haverhill, Lexington, Lowell, Marblehead, Natick, Newton, Newburyport, Somerville, Swampscott, Weston, Winchester, Woburn. As well as southern New Hampshire, including Nashua, Londonderry, and Merrimack. Check out our portfolio for Boston kitchen remodeling, Boston bathroom remodeling, and more.