FACTS: LEED in short

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The rating system is based on a brought sustainability perspective of technical criteria for verifying the environmentally sustainable design, construction and operation of buildings and neighbourhoods.

LEED originates from the U.S., and today more than 99 square kilometres (1,000 billion square feet) of development area in the U.S. and in more than 30 other countries worldwide have been LEED-certified.

In LEED 2009, the number of total possible points is 100 plus six bonus points for Innovation in Design and four bonus points for Regional Priority. Buildings can qualify for four levels of certification: Certified (40+ points), Silver (50+ points), Gold (60+ points) and Platinum (80+ points).