Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is the preeminent certification program for green building in the United States. Sponsored by the United States Green Building Council LEED certification brings legitimacy and strict guidelines to sustainable building practices. It also ensures that building are not only built green, but are built to be run sustainably. This means lower energy usage, lower environmental impact and better interior environmental conditions for employees and patrons. How it works: The LEED scorecard is the tool by which the USGBC measures how “green” you are. Different types of spaces are measured on different scorecards. We are a Commercial Interior. Points are awarded and tallied in various categories:

• Interior Environmental Quality
• Energy Consumption
• Water Usage
• Materials and Resources.

The most interesting category is Innovation and Design Process. Under this section you are awarded points for breaking new ground in sustainable design. The more cutting edge your ideas, the more points the project receives. Our project is going for gold.

We need to score between 32 and 41 points out of a total of 57 to get there.