What Does a LEED Certification Mean?

 



More and more people are becoming aware of the environment. They are increasingly demanding sustainable or greener alternatives to almost everything as they strive to reduce their carbon footprint, and this includes buildings. Today, the demand for greener buildings is steadily growing.

As green building practices are increasingly in demand, more and more building owners have started taking the different green building certifications seriously. Among the most popular green building certification systems is the LEED – Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design. It is the foremost rating system for green building design. 

What is LEED?

Administered by the USGBC, the LEED Certification program started around 1994, to motivate people involved in the design and construction of buildings, like property developers and interior designers, to consider using sustainable or greener practices in their projects. It has grown to become highly respected and admired by professionals within the industry, environmentalists, and even consumers. 

LEED System of Rating Green Buildings

Building ratings use a credit-based system. The system grants points based on compliance levels with different facets of sustainability. To earn points, a project needs to follow certain requirements that focus on energy efficiency, water usage, waste management, carbon, materials, environmental quality indoors, transportation, and health. Building projects have to undergo a verification process, as well as review by the GBCI, after which they are awarded points.

The rating system is as follows:

  • Buildings earning 40 – 49 points -- LEED Certification

  • Buildings earning 50 – 59 points -- LEED Silver Certification

  • Buildings earning 60 – 79 points -- LEED Gold Certification

  • Buildings earning 80 and above points -- LEED Platinum

Earning a LEED Certification

Due to the flexibility of LEED standards, not every single building project is required to follow similar rules to get credits or points. Different rating systems take into account the challenges and needs of a variety of building projects. 

The points to be earned would depend on what is being built. It simply means that one will need to follow a particular rating system depending on the project that is seeking to become LEED-certified.

Since meeting the requirements and earning points can get confusing, consultancy services like Windtech wind engineering Consultants offer their expertise to ensure compliance with the LEED certification requirements.

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Importance of Well Building Certification

Image
  Our priorities are constantly shifting in the world we live in today. It is not surprising that there is a rising desire for healthier and more environmentally friendly structures given the increased understanding of how our built environment affects our health and well-being. The Well Building Certification becomes useful in this situation. It is a thorough standard that encourages healthy and sustainable structures by taking into account a number of aspects that have an effect on our health. What is Well Building Certification? The Well Building Certification is a global standard that was established to promote health and well-being in buildings. It takes into account various factors that impact our well-being including air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind. It evaluates these factors in a building and certifies it based on how well it performs in promoting the health and well-being of its occupants. What are the Benefits of Well Building Certificati...
Read more

Wind Tunnel Testing Benefits

Image
Testing using a wind tunnel is an essential part of designing in numerous industries, typically used for verification, and tuning of aerodynamic properties of objects. An object may be in motion or stationary, wind tunnel testing offers insights into how air and wind affect the test model as it moves around it or over it. In fields such as the construction and/or engineering of tall buildings, roofs, bridges, aerospace parts, vehicles, stadiums, and building facades use wind studies.  What Are The Benefits of Wind Tunnel Testing? When engineers and architects pour their energies into designing structures using state-of-the-art materials combined with unique designs and shapes, they need to be able to ensure that their designs will hold up in the real world.  A good example is enhancing natural ventilation within structures. Natural ventilation does not consume energy, whereas, for a building equipped with mechanical ventilation, the energy consumption is considerable. Using na...
Read more

Why Is Natural Ventilation in Buildings Important

Image
  Ventilation is a process that involves replacing stale air with fresh air. Without proper ventilation, homes and buildings will be susceptible to stagnant air, which with bacteria and carbon dioxide, make the air indoors much more polluted than the air outdoors.  What is Natural Ventilation? Natural ventilation allows fresh air to enter a home or a building from the outside. The new air pushes the dirtier warm air outside through an opening on the roof, windows, or other openings. It is among the most practical means to decrease the energy usage in structures and buildings as it uses the power of the wind and buoyancy to allow fresh air to enter and spread within the structure. It is guided by the varying pressures between different building sections and between the pressures indoors and outdoors.  Natural ventilation also provides certain benefits like: Health benefits, and  Lower power costs Kinds of Natural Ventilation There are primarily two forms of natural v...
Read more