What is LEEDS Certification? Technically, it's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, but most people have come to understand it as the defining factor of a green lifestyle.
It also fosters a sense of competition that leads to cutting edge innovation and the most architectural dynamic and interesting buildings currently being built, like buildings that recycle rainwater into water for the building and use heat and light more efficiently than other buildings.
To most, however, this is a fairly new player on their intellectual awareness.
It has become a buzzword only recently, so what is it really, and where has it come from? It actually started in the mid 1990s as a committee put forth by the National Resources Defense Council, as six people volunteering to come up with an alternate way to build buildings that was more green, sustainable and environmentally friendly and responsible, than was previously accepted.
They set out with the intent to define what exactly a green building constituted by establishing a standard of measurement and comparison, promote whole building, integrated designs, create and encourage competition to be green and greener, and recognize and promote environmental construction leadership.
They understood this would have the planned byproduct of promoting the benefits of green building and ultimately, transform and redefine construction and the way we as consumers look at the functionality and sustainability of buildings.
This small committee has grown into a major organization with not just one, but six separate designations of environmental construction.
They developed a rating system that, while not complicated, is certainly comprehensive, and covers six different issues and areas in building concerns.
They pay attention to sustainable sites, how water is used more efficiently, the materials used and where they were sourced from, the use and conservation of energy, the indoor environmental quality, and of course, they have a strong concern and interest in innovation and design.
The rating system works on a point value in each of these categories.
For sustainable sites points, there are 26 possible points to be had, the total maximum is one hundred points, and they range from things like public transportation access and bike storage to development density, light pollution reduction and the maximization of open spaces.
Water efficiency awards points for water use reductions, water efficient landscaping, and innovative wastewater techniques, while renewable energy, green power, regional and reused materials are all addressed in different categories.
However, one of the issues currently faced with LEEDS Certification is that the builders, architects, and laborers don't know how to most efficiently produce green results and this can drive up the initial costs of the building project, despite the unanimous savings it creates down the road, to the consumer typically, by being more energy and water efficient, and generally more ascetically pleasing, creating a higher property value.
This has created a small amount of stigma that LEEDS Certification is more costly, when really it is of exponentially greater value because of the media coverage that it tends to attract, the higher end, more discerning buyers that are interested in purchasing developed land, and the potential to win awards for innovative design.
In short, LEEDS Certification can be one of the best things for a neighborhood or a new property development, aside from the obvious benefits it has for posterity and for the continual health of the planet.
The more people that fully understand both environmental design and the message that it hopes to convey the better, for both our buildings and our every day life.