LEED Certified

Going Green

Going Green and getting LEED Certified

LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is shifting the way buildings and communities are planned, built, maintained and operated.  It works for all buildings and at all phases of development.  Projects seeking LEED certification, earn points in many different areas that address sustainability.  Dependent on the number of points attained, a project can receive one of four LEED rating levels: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum.  Certified buildings are very efficient; using less water and energy, decreasing the amount of greenhouse gas released, and they save money.  Being certified means healthier, more productive places that reduce stress on the environment.

There are 4 simple steps to getting LEED certified.

First, there is registration.  You must make sure your project meets the certification criteria.

• Comply with environmental laws
• Be a complete, permanent building
• Use a reasonable site boundary
• Comply with minimum floor area requirements
• Comply with minimum occupancy requirements
• Commit to sharing whole-building energy and water usage data
• Comply with a minimum building area to site are ratio

Building projects pursuing LEED v4 certification must:

• Be in a permanent location on existing land
• Use reasonable LEED boundaries
• Comply with project size requirement

Second, you must apply or submit your request for certification.

• Is the required information clearly highlighted?
• Are your attached files labelled correctly?
• Are you only submitting the needed information?
• Do you have summarizing descriptions of your project?

Third, the application is reviewed by a third party organization.  This process has 3 steps.

• Preliminary Review: the submission will be checked for completeness.  Between 20-25 days there will be a response with number of credits the project will receive.
• Final Review: allows additional needed information to be submitted (if any was missing) or appeal the credits for the project.
• Appeal Review: This is the final appeal to add additional information to receive a higher score.

The last step is receiving your certification.  There are 4 different levels of certification based on number of points or credits.

• Certified 40-49 points earned
• Silver 50-59 points earned
• Gold 60-79 points earned
• Platinum 80+ points earned

information taken from LEED http://leed.usgbc.org

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