Page 47 - Green Building Through Integrated Design

THE LEED RATING SYSTEMS 25

Figure 2.3 LEED-NC credit distribution.

LEED project attainment levels are rewarded as follows:

Certified >40% of the 64 “core” points in the system

Silver >50% of the core points
Gold >60% of the core points
Platinum >80% of the core points

The LEED rating system is a form of an “eco-label” that describes the environ-
mental attributes of the project, similar to the nutrition labels on food. Prior to the
advent of LEED, there was no labeling of buildings other than for their energy use, as
®
found in the federal government’s ENERGY STAR program.* Solely presenting a
building’s energy use compared with all other buildings of the same type in a given
region, gives an incomplete picture of a building’s overall environmental impact. The
LEED scorecard (shown in Fig. 2.4 for the largest LEED Platinum building in the
world) shows a project’s achievement in each credit category and allows you to
quickly assess the sustainable strategies used by the building team.
The irony here is that a $20 million building that is not LEED-certified has less
labeling than a $2 box of animal crackers, in terms of its “nutritional” benefits (energy use,

*Energy Star program [online], www.energystar.gov, accessed July 31, 2008.