Green Building and LEED Core Concepts Guide First Edition

LEADERSHIP IN ENERGY AND
ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating System
was created by USG Be to provide a framework for meeting sustainabilitygoals and assessing
building performance. Voluntary and consen s us ~ba scd , LEED addresses all building types.
LEED is a third-party green building certification program
and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design,
construction, and operation of high-performance green
buildings and neighborhoods. 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 location and plann ing,
sustai nable site development, water savings, energy
efficiency, materials selection, indoor environmental quality,
innovative strategies, and attention to priority regional
Issues.
LEED measures and enhances the design and sustainability of buildings based on a "triple bonom
line"approach. The terrnwascoined by John Elkington in 1994 to refocus thcmeasurementofcorporate
performance from the perspective of a shareholder (predominantly financially driven) to that
ofa stakeholder (anyone affected by
the actionsofa finn) and coordinate
three interests: "people, planet, and
profit." USGBC has adapted the
triple bottom line to establish metrics
and rating systems to measure
and recognize building projects
based on their performance in the
three corresponding dimensions of
susrainability: society, the environment,
and the economy.
Figure 4. The Triple Bottom Line
The three dimensions are often likened
to the three legs of a stool. If
the legs are not all equal, the stool
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Green Bl! i1dmg and LEED Core Concepts Guide