ABOUT LEED

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) was created by the U.S. Green Building Council to encourage and accelerate the adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria for new and existing buildings.

LEED is the country's preeminent third party certification program and the internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings in both the commercial and residential fields.

There are currently more than 35,000 commercial projects participating in the LEED system, comprising over 4.5 billion square feed of construction space in all 50 U.S. states and 91 countries. The program is now administered by the Green Building Certification Institute (www.GBCI.org).

By using less energy, LEED-certified buildings save money for families, businesses and taxpayers; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and contribute to a healthier environment for residents, workers and the larger community.

LEED Certified Buildings in the Central Texas - Balcones Chapter area include in San Antonio: the Zachry Construction Corp. HQ (Gold), Employment and Conference Center (Gold), and Trane Regional Headquarters (Silver); in Austin: Dell Children’s Hospital (Platinum), The Ronald McDonald House (Platinum) and Austin City Hall (Gold), and in Waco Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary (Certified), and the Waco Chamber of Commerce (Gold).

To learn more about LEED certified projects in Central and South Texas visit the LEED in Central Texas page

The current version of LEED is Version3, comprised of three major components:

LEED 2009 harmonizes, aligns and reweights the LEED credits across all the LEED rating systems for commercial and institutional buildings – LEED for New Construction, LEED for Core & Shell, LEED for Commercial Interiors, LEED for Schools, and LEED for Existing Buildings LEED 2009 was developed through USGBC’s consensus-based process, including the LEED Steering Committee, public comment, and balloting among USGBC’s member organizations.

LEED Online, the tool LEED project teams use to manage the LEED registration and certification processes, is being improved for greater speed, more reliability and a better user experience.