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7: The Need for Standard IT Energy-Use Metrics 115

formal letter. It covered areas, such as metrics for server idle state and server
idle power, and discussed reporting requirements. Because SPEC has been
working with server power metrics for many years, their experience and feed-
back to the EPA will significantly enhance the EPA’s server metrics.

LEED Green Building Rating System

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green
Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council
(USGBC), provides a certification program for developing high-performance,
sustainable buildings. LEED does not directly address the aspect of a rating
system for green data centers or green IT. However, there has been activity
within LEED to add data centers.
Since its inception in 2000, LEED has grown to encompass more than
18,000 projects in 50 U.S. states and 91 countries covering 4.1 billion square
feet (381 square kilometers) of development area. The hallmark of LEED is
that it is an open and transparent process where the technical criteria pro-
posed by the LEED committees are publicly reviewed for approval by the ptg
more than 19,000 membership organizations that currently constitute the
USGBC.
Individuals recognized for their knowledge of the LEED rating system are
permitted to use the LEED Accredited Professional (AP) acronym after their
name, indicating they have passed the accreditation exam given by the
USGBC.

History

LEED began its development in 1994, spearheaded by Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC) senior scientist Robert K. Watson, who, as found-
ing chairman of the LEED Steering Committee until 2006, led a broad-based
consensus process that included nonprofit organizations, government agen-
cies, architects, engineers, developers, builders, product manufacturers, and
other industry leaders. Early LEED committee members also included
USGBC cofounder Mike Italiano, architects Bill Reed and Sandy Mendler,
builder Gerard Heiber, and engineer Richard Bourne. As interest in LEED
grew, in 1996, engineers Tom Paladino and Lynn Barker cochaired the newly
formed LEED technical committee.
From 1994 to 2006, LEED grew from one standard for new construction
to a comprehensive system of six interrelated standards covering all aspects
of the development and construction process. LEED also has grown from