LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.  It is a green building rating system designed to reduce or eliminate the negative impacts of buildings on the environment; as well as improve the indoor quality for its occupants.  The USGBC, created the LEED rating system to address a market need to define and measure “green building”, as stated in the LEED reference Guides.  Formed in 1993, the USGBC was, and remains, a diverse group, including: architects, real estate agents, building owners, lawyers, environmentalists and other industry representatives; the LEED rating system’s are voluntary, governed with consensus-based principals, and a market driven focus.

A few statistics to help understand the need, in the U.S. alone, buildings are responsible for using 30% of the total energy and more than 60% of the electricity.  If that can be cut by 20- 50%, think of the impact.  More stats, related to occupants of schools, studies have shown higher test scores in LEED Schools; in retail, day lighting (using sky lighting or natural light) has proven to increase sales.  People feel more comfortable in the space and therefore stay in it longer, and buy more.

The LEED Rating system offers different levels of certification:
Certified	40 – 49 points
Silver	50 – 59 points
Gold	60 – 69 points
Platinum	80 – points and above

The points listed above are chosen from 5 major categories:
Sustainable Sites (SS)
Water Efficiency (WE)
Energy and Atmosphere (EA)
Materials and Resources (MR)
Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)

Additionally, Innovation in Design (ID) was created for exceeding the current standards or for incentive to create new ideas.  An additional category, new in 2009, is Regional Priority (RP) – created to address issues that impact specific regions of the country.  Also, note that there are pre-requisites to be fulfilled as well.

The benefits of building a project to LEED standards versus conventional buildings are substantial, and as mentioned above, directly benefit the owner and the building occupants; not to mention the positive or reduced negative impacts on the environment.  Energy savings is substantial and will be ongoing. 

Other savings will be realized related to lower operational costs through technology, as well as synergies created during the process.  With LEED, all responsible people – owner, architect, engineer, contractor, etc. -- work together to create a plan to synergize the building components.  An example, day lighting, may impact the size of the HVAC equipment.  

How does the rating system impact fabricators -- residential and commercial casework, furniture, cabinets, etc. -- interested in producing for LEED projects?

First, Metro has a LEED AP to help you walk through the projects, from understanding biding, to fulfilling requirements for LEED Compliant Products.  A few basic questions to ask the architect/contractor:

If producing for a LEED project:

1. What LEED rating system is the project registered under? Currently there are multiple Reference Guides.  Examples include:
   • LEED reference guide for Green Building Design and Construction – Edition 2009
   • LEED reference guide for Green Interior Design and Construction Edition 2009
   • LEED NC 2.2
2. What type of project is it?
   
   • New Construction
   • Core and Shell
   • Schools
   • Commercial Interiors
   • Retail
   • Healthcare
   • Home

LEED has sets of requirements for each type of construction.

Once you know the answers to 1 and 2, our LEED AP can take you from there…