What is LEED?

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is the most valid rating system for green buildings in the world.

LEED was developed by the non-profit organization of USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council) in 1993 to help the building industry become responsible and efficient in terms of environment and resources.

LEED aims to provide designers and real estate experts with a framework for assessing healthy, efficient, and cost-effective green buildings. LEED-certified buildings are globally considered to be the most sustainable green buildings possible.

This rating system is used for all types of buildings and can be applied in all building stages such as shell and core, new constructions, interior fit-outs, operation, and maintenance.

There are four levels for LEED-certified buildings:

1. Platinum: 80+ points earned

2. Gold: 60-79 points earned

3. Silver: 50-59 points earned

4. Certified: 40-49 points earned

Different versions of LEED?

LEED has constantly evolved to become a more accurate rating system for green building technologies. The first version was LEED New Construction (N.C.), which and later evolved to LEED NC v2.0, LEED NC v2.2 in 2005. Then LEED v3 was developed in 2009, and finally, LEED v4 was introduced in November 2013.

LEED 2009 (v3) was valid until October 31, 2016, and new projects were allowed to choose between it and LEED v4. But after that, new projects were forced to solely use LEED v4.

LEED Canada

Following the evolving LEED rating system in the U.S.A., the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) also was permitted to create LEED Canada-NC v1.0 in 2003. It was based on LEED-NC 2.0 and now contains the following categories:

· Sustainable sites (SS)

· Water efficiency (WE)

· Materials & resources (MR)

· Energy and atmosphere (EA)

· Indoor environmental quality (EQ)

· Innovation in design (ID)

· Regional priorities (RP)

LEED Certification in Canada is issued by the CaGBC. According to Condoly, a pioneer in Canada’s condo assignments resale, many homeowners are shifting towards LEED-certified buildings. It’s also good to know that because of rainwater harvesting systems in many Canadian buildings, they’re can be LEED-certified easier.

LEED-certified buildings in Canada

With a total of 46.89 million square meters of LEED-certified space, Canada is the second country outside of the U.S. after Chine. However, Canada has more certified projects (3,254) compared to China (1,494).

Canada’s total number of LEED-certified projects is more than twice as many as China’s 1,494. Today, the total number of LEED certifications and registrations (combined) in Canada are as follows:

· Ontario: 3,015

· Quebec: 1,643

· British Columbia: 1,571

· Alberta: 1,194

· Atlantic Canada: 378

· Manitoba: 282

· Saskatchewan: 129

· Territories: 24

Source: https://condoly.ca/