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Background to LEED
The Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
Green Building Rating System™ has been
developed by the US Green Building Council (USGBC)
and officially launched in 1998 in the US.
The scheme has been inspired by the
UK-equivalent BREEAM scheme which was
created in 1990.
LEED is a voluntary sustainability
evaluation methodology and covers all types
of buildings: Offices, retail, homes,
residential high-rise, public buildings,
commercial interiors, etc. Different
customized adaptations of the scheme are
available for various building types, as
well as major renovations and minor
refurbishments.
The scheme
which is the most used, especially for
International projects, is LEED for New
Construction or Major Renovations (LEED-NC).
About
the LEED Scheme
LEED assesses
buildings against a wide range of
environmental and sustainability issues,
covering the following 6 categories:
- Sustainable
Sites
- Water Efficiency
- Energy & Atmosphere
- Materials &
Resources
- Indoor
Environmental Quality
- Innovation
in Design
For each issue,
one or more ‘credits’ are available when
specific levels of performance or process
are achieved. In addition, some
pre-requisite credits are mandatory for any
level of LEED
certification.
Overall, 69 points or credits
are obtainable in the previous LEED-NC v2.2
version. In the newly introduced LEED-NC v3,
the scale has been revised to 100 credits,
with an additional 10 points available
either for Innovation in Design credits or
for Regional credits (for projects within
the US only).
The final LEED-NC
rating is determined as described in the table below:
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LEED Ratings
LEED v2.2
LEED v3 |
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Certified
26-32 points
40-49 points |
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Silver
33-38 points
50-59 points |
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Gold
39-51 points
60-79 points |
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Platinum
52-69 points
80+ points |
The LEED
assessment process is characterized by two
distinct phases, the Design Phase Review and
the Construction Phase Review, whereby the
final LEED certificate is only granted by
the USGBC at end of construction.
How EcoConsulting can Help
For more information about undertaking a
LEED assessment, or on detailed advice on
how to achieve a target rating, please
contact us.
Our team can
also assist on designing an energy-efficient
building through
Dynamic Thermal Modelling
and
3D Daylighting Simulations,
thus maximizing the number of Energy &
Atmosphere credits.
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