Overview of LEED Considerations for Green Building
LEED Certification ensures all members of the development team, from architect to engineer to contractor and owner, consider a huge variety of factors to reduce the impact humanity has on the Earth. Selecting a building site that is central to existing development, has a minimal building footprint, incorporates significant vegetated space and has limited or no net effect on surrounding terrain, temperature and illumination is how LEED certified buildings resist urban sprawl and sustain natural habitats.
Stringent requirements ensure LEED certified buildings are carefully designed for sustainable and efficient water use and reuse. Exhaustive assessment, design and real-world evaluation of buildings for measurably reduced energy consumption, green sourced energy contracts, and self-supply of energy from a spectrum of green generation technologies ensure LEED development creates a lower cost of operation in both money and environment. Elimination or minimization and careful maintenance of ozone depleting refrigerants and greenhouse gasses ensure zero or near zero long-term contribution to global climate change.
LEED certification promotes reuse of existing on-site building materials and structures and selecting materials that are made from recycled content, salvaged from other sources, or otherwise refurbished and implemented in the design of the project. Materials which originate in the indigenous region of the project are rewarded for their lower transportation cost. Rapidly renewable materials are rewarded in favor of non-renewable and long-cycle renewable materials. Lumber from certified sources ensures humanity's ongoing stewardship of forests.
LEED puts significant emphasis on the occupant experience through effective ventilation, filtration, temperature and lighting. LEED rewards curtailing or eliminating on-site tobacco smoking and the impact it has on non-smoker occupants. Air quality during construction and pre-occupancy air flushing are assessed and rewarded. All adhesives, sealants, carpeting, grout, and paints used on the project are controlled based on their outgassing of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Standards for air filtration and circulation, especially that which involves spaces where hazardous chemicals are used or stored, is carefully specified. LEED rewards lighting systems which incorporate natural outdoor light and views to the outdoors across the majority of a building while providing glare reducing systems (like blinds) to ensure occupant comfort.
Two special sections in the LEED certification program allow for further accredidation: Innovation in Design, and Regional Priority. Innovation in design awards additional points to developments which, though use of advanced technologies and techniques, are able to significantly exceed the criteria in the LEED specification. The Regional Priority varies by geography and adds specific criteria based on the climate and challenges which directly apply to the locale of the construction project.
