What does LEED stand for?

The question "what does LEED stand for?" is a common question asked by first time home builders, designers, and developers. LEED is an abbreviation for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Over the past decade there has been a vast increase in the number of people who are concerned about the environment. Because of this many initiatives have been created to help alleviate this concern. LEED is one of these initiatives. LEED is internationally recognized environmental program and is currently deployed in more than 30 countries around the world. It provides a means of verifying that a building or a group of buildings were designed and built in a way that would improve energy savings, water efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and CO2 emissions reduction.

It uses a third party verification system to determine if a project falls within LEED standards. There are several different levels of certification that a developer can home to attain: certified, silver, gold, and platinum. The third party individuals must become certified with the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) in order to gain an understanding of LEED's rating system.

The program is used to establish common standards in which to rate each project. LEED also is used to recognize environmental leadership among designers and construction companies alike. It also aims to create a new sense of direction for the building market while at the same time creating a type of competition amongst companies to increase their environmental awareness. LEED also hopes to increase consumer awareness of the benefits of building environmentally friendly homes.

The program focuses on the design of the building and is now dealing with actual energy consumption after it has been built. There are currently five different types that fall under this program:

• New Construction
  LEED for New Construction and Major Renovations is designed to guide and distinguish high-performance commercial and institutional projects.
• Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance
  LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance provides a benchmark for building owners and operators to measure operations, improvements and maintenance.
• Commercial Interiors
  LEED for Commercial Interiors is a benchmark for the tenant improvement market that gives the power to make sustainable choices to tenants and designers.
• Core & Shell
  LEED for Core & Shell aids designers, builders, developers and new building owners in implementing sustainable design for new core and shell construction.
• Schools
  LEED for Schools recognizes the unique nature of the design and construction of K-12 schools and addresses the specific needs of school spaces.
• Retail
  LEED for Retail recognizes the unique nature of retail design and construction projects and addresses the specific needs of retail spaces.
• Healthcare
  LEED for Healthcare promotes sustainable planning, design and construction for high-performance healthcare facilities.
• Homes
  LEED for Homes promotes the design and construction of high-performance green homes.
• Neighborhood Development
  LEED for Neighborhood Development integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building into the first national program for neighborhood design.