The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program is considered one of the most comprehensive and widely accepted green building standards.
"This traction demonstrates the transformation of the way we design, build and operate buildings," said Rick Fedrizzi, president and CEO of USGBC. "Not only does green building contribute to saving energy, water and money, it also creates green jobs that will grow and energize our economy."
The LEED program was first introduced in 2000. Since then, more than 7,000 commercial projects have become certified and more than 36,000 have registered for LEED certification. By encouraging reduced consumption of energy and the use of more sustainable materials and construction practices, the LEED program engenders buildings that save money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to healthier working and living environments.
"The impact of these one billion square feet can be seen in communities around the world," said Peter Templeton, president of the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI), the certifying body for LEED projects. "The use of LEED represents a growing global commitment to improving our built environment for future generations."
In a recent report, McGraw-Hill Construction noted that the green building industry grew by 50% in the last two years, despite the withering economic impact of the recession that saw declines in many other industries. In a previous 2009 study, McGraw-Hill projected that the green building industry will contribute $554 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product and create or save 7.9 million American jobs between 2009 and 2013.
To help sustain momentum in the LEED building certification process, USGBC said it hopes to streamline and create more capacity by enabling LEED Online, the online tool projects use to submit documentation and certify LEED projects, to interact with third-party technology providers for the first time.
"We recognized several years ago that we cannot focus only on the evolution of LEED and its continuous improvement. The technology used to administer the LEED certification process is also evolving to increase customers’ business agility through improved data, information and content integration," said Chris Smith, USGBC's COO.
The new LEED Automation service is intended to enable LEED project teams to use third party applications to automate various LEED documentation processes, provide a unified view of their LEED projects, and standardize LEED content and distribute it consistently across multiple technology platforms by allowing technology companies to create multi-party interactions instead of point-to-point communications between various software applications and IT systems.
