LEED, Efficiency Standards, and Risk Fa 08
Overview
What are green buildings?
Green building focuses on improving the efficiency with which buildings use resources such as energy, water, and virgin materials than those built to conventional code. This building practice also reduces impacts on human health and the environment during the building's life cycle. The buildings are designed to reduce waste as well as pollution and environmental degradation. Ideally the buildings protect the occupant's health, improve occupant's productivity, and efficiently use resources. It achieves these goals through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal.
According to a report prepared in partnership with the US Green Building Council (USBC), buildings consume 70% of the nation’s electricity and a large part of the materials, water and waste used and generated in our economy. Because of the static nature of buildings, they comprise a relatively constant resource and technology consumption in our economy. Presently, there has been a widespread perception that green buildings are substantially more costly than conventional design and may not be justified from a cost benefits perspective. Despite their ascetically pleasing construction and design, this perception creates an obstacle to the more widespread adoption of green design.
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Standard
LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is one of the primary certification and ratings systems for sustainable buildings. It was developed by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) to provide guidelines and ratings system for evaluating "Green" buildings.
The standards are defined such that a building may LEED Certified if the building scores at least 26 points from the following categories:
Categories Points Available
- 1. Sustainable Sites 14
- 2. Water Efficiency 5
- 3. Energy and Atmosphere 17
- 4. Materials and Resources 13
- 5. Indoor Environmental Quality 15
- 6. LEED Innovation Credits 5
- Total Points Available 69
A Building may be classified as falling under one of four certification categories:
- LEED Certified 26 - 32 points
- LEED Silver 33 - 38 points
- LEED Gold 39 - 51 points
- LEED Platinum 52+ points
