The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

DEFINITION
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria. LEED was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a non-profit organization committed to expanding sustainable building practices.

LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. It follows a building's conception from start to finish. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: 1) sustainable site development, 2) water savings, 3) energy efficiency, 4) materials selection, and 5) indoor environmental quality.

LEED CERTIFICATION LEVELS
Points are rewarded based on project design elements related to energy and the environment. Certification levels are based on total point value and include certified, silver, gold, and platinum.

LEED RATING SYSTEMS
Rating systems have been created for many different sectors.

• New Construction LEED is designed to guide and distinguish high-performance commercial and institutional projects.

• Existing Buildings: provides a benchmark for building owners and operators to measure operations, improvements and maintenance.

• Commercial Interiors LEED: a benchmark for the tenant improvement market that gives the power to make sustainable choices to tenants and designers.

• New Construction LEED is designed to guide and distinguish high-performance commercial and institutional projects.

• Core & Shell LEED: aids designers, builders, developers and new building owners inimplementing sustainable design for new core and shell construction.

• Schools LEED: recognizes the unique nature of the design and construction of K-12 schools and addresses the specific needs of school spaces.

• Retail LEED: recognizes the unique nature of retail design and construction projects and addresses the specific needs of retail spaces.

• Healthcare LEED: promotes sustainable planning, design and construction for high-performance healthcare facilities.

• LEED for homes: promotes the design and construction of high-performance green homes.

• Neighborhood Development LEED: integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building into the first national program for neighborhood design.1

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
The LEED system's promotion of sustainable construction, efficient planning of water and energy use, and use of renewable materials in buildings yields many environmental benefits including: the enhancement and protection of ecosystems and biodiversity; improved air and water quality; reduced solid waste; and the conservation of natural resources.

BENEFITS
Beyond the environmental benefits and cost-savings that are the main staple of LEED, the system can also yield social and economic benefits such as: reduced operating costs, enhancement of asset value and profits due to improved employee productivity, and satisfaction and optimization of life-cycle economic performance.

DISADVANTAGES
The main concern with building according to LEED standards is that the initial cost for such construction is greater than it would be for building according to traditional standards. However, long term savings through efficiency add to overall return on investment.2 There is also an additional cost for building monitoring that is part of LEED certification requirements.

VALLEY ACCESS POTENTIAL
The U.S. Green Building Council has a chapter in Fresno. The chapter acts as an intermediary for finding LEED Accredited Professionals (AP) in the Central Valley. LEED APs are licensed building professionals who can evaluate construction using the LEED rating system.

LEED IN THE GREAT CENTRAL VALLEY
As the first research institution of the 21st century and the first UC campus constructed in over 50 years, the University of California, Merced has made a serious commitment to sustainability starting with the built environment, where the University is striving to achieve LEED silver certification on each new structure. So far, UC Merced has been successful in achieving their LEED certification goals, even exceeding the certification goal on some buildings by achieving LEED gold.

For more information on LEED, a program of the US Green Building Council, visit www.usgbc.org. Learn more about UC Merced's LEED certified buildings and environmental commitment at www.ucmerced.edu.

1 US Green Building Council: www.usgbc.org (last accessed April 22, 2009)
2 The True Costs of Building Green: www.buildings.com/articles/detail.aspx?contentID=3029 (last accessed April 22, 2009)