Thanks to Atty.

Danny Cortina

LEED BUILDING AND GREEN BUILDING

 LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is redefining the way we think
about the places where we live, work and learn. As an internationally recognized mark of
excellence, LEED provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying
and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations
and maintenance solutions.
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 LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification that a building, home or
community was designed and built using strategies aimed at achieving high performance in
key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings,
energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.
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 Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in 2000, the LEED rating systems are
developed through an open, consensus-based process led by LEED committees. The next
update of the LEED rating system, coined LEED 2012, is the next step in the continuous
improvement process and on-going development cycle of LEED.
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 The LEED program — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — is playing an
increasingly important role in the drive to make buildings in the United States greener and
more energy efficient. LEED is now the most prominent and widely adopted green building
certification program in the country, with architects and developers striving to earn LEED’s
coveted platinum or gold rating, and an increasing number of local, state, and federal
regulations beginning to incorporate LEED standards into official building codes.
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 But LEED — sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council, an industry group — has a
glaring and little-known drawback: It places scant emphasis on factors relating to human
health, even as the largely unregulated use of potentially toxic building materials continues
to expand. One of LEED’s major accomplishments — saving energy by making buildings
more airtight — has had the paradoxical effect of more effectively trapping the gases
emitted by the unprecedented number of chemicals used in today’s building materials and
furnishings. Yet, as the threat from indoor air pollution grows, LEED puts almost no weight
on human health factors in deciding whether a building meets its environmental and social
goals.