The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC Web Link), co-founded by Mike Italiano, David Gottfried and Rick Fedrizzi in 1993, is a non-profit trade organization that promotes sustainability in how buildings are designed, built, and operated. USGBC is best known for the development of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating systems and Greenbuild, a green building conference and expo that promotes the green building industry, including environmentally responsible materials, sustainable architecture techniques and public policy. USGBC was one of eight national councils which helped found the World Green Building Council in 1999.
In LEED 2009 there are 100 possible base points distributed across five major credit categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, plus an additional 6 points for Innovation in Design and an additional 4 points for Regional Priority. Buildings can qualify for four levels of certification:
-Certified: 40–49 points
-Silver: 50–59 points
-Gold: 60–79 points
-Platinum: 80 points and above
The LEED for Homes rating system is different from LEED v3, with different point categories and thresholds that reward efficient residential design.
The Philip Merrill Environmental Center is recognized as one of the "greenest" buildings ever constructed in the USA. Sustainability issues ranging from energy use to material selection were given serious consideration throughout design and construction of this facility. It was the first building to receive a Platinum rating through the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Rating System, version 1.0. The IGS Energy headquarters is the first commercial building in central Ohio to receive LEED platinum certification. In October 2011, Apogee Stadium on the campus of the University of North Texas became the first newly-built stadium in the country to achieve Platinum-level certification.
How many LEED certified buildings are there?
2,476.
The report “Green Building by the Numbers”, published in April 2009 by the US Green Building Council ‘“ creator of the LEED certification ‘“ states there are 2,476 LEED certified projects and 19,524 registered projects, distributed in over 90 countries. Altogether, commercial building space with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification amounts to more than 5 billion square feet.
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