There are so many great green buildings out there. How sustainable are they though? I will be showing some great green buildings in the future, but before I do, I thought i'd explain a bit about some of the criteria for getting the oft-desired LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) status on a building.

Here's a bit of background info from http://www.usgbc.org:
"LEED's Green Building Rating System™ is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.
LEED provides a roadmap for measuring and documenting success for every building type and phase of a building lifecycle."

A few things that LEED looks at, generally:
- Sustainable Sites
- Water Efficiency
- Energy and Atmosphere
- Materials and Resources
- Indoor Environmental Quality

further, LEED buildings -
are leading the transformation of the built environment
are built as designed and perform as expected.
have lower operating costs and increased asset value
are healthy and comfortable for their occupants
reduce waste sent to landfills
conserve energy and water
reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions
qualify for tax rebates, zoning allowances, and other incentives in hundreds of cities
demonstrate an owner's commitment to environmental stewardship and social responsibility

There are 4 levels of LEED certification based on the number of "points" from the above areas:

Certified - 40-50% of non-innovation points
Silver - 50-60%
Gold - 60-80%
Platinum - over 80%

LEED has grown to encompass over 6,000 projects in 28 countries covering 1 billion square feet of development area. The hallmark of LEED is that it is an open and transparent process where the technical criteria proposed by the LEED committees are publicly reviewed for approval by the more than 8,500 membership organizations that currently comprise the USGBC. (from wikipedia)