What are the benefits of LEED certification?

• Construction have higher return of investment.
• Building's value is above 15% higher.
• Operation cost energy reduces of at least 20%.
• Occupants are more comfortable, healthy and productive.
• ​It is good for the planet.

What is the LEED certification?

This green building certification standard means that a project from its design to its operation is following the most recent sustainable practices and that a third-party organisation (USGBC) recognized their efficient application. LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the green building certification most widely used worldwide with more than 90,000 registered and certified projects.

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How much does LEED Certification cost?

1. ​Project registration paid to USGBC: 1,200 $USD *
2. Green building certification consulting: 6,000 to 15,000 $USD **
3. Building Energy Modeling: 4,000 to 20,000 $USD **
4. Commissioning (CxA): 0.3% a 1.0% of construction cost.
5. Review and Certification paid to USGBC: 2,325 to 30,750 $USD *

How to be an accredited LEED professional?

LEED Green Associate (GA):

1. Be passionate about sustainability
2. Read everything about LEED and USGBC.
3. Take notes of important/recurring points.
4. Re-read everything you have.
5. Revise your notes.
6. (Optional) Take an online or in-person training.
7. Pass the GBCI approved exam.

LEED Accredited Professional (AP):

1. Be Green Associate.
2. (Recommended) Participate to certification projects
3. Have a thorough understanding of the LEED rating system you wish to be accredited.
4. Revise documentation and GBCI reviewer's comments for the USGBC projects you participated.
5. (Optional) Take an online or in-person training.
6. Pass the GBCI approved exam.

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* USGBC fees can vary, are for BD+C, and are including the membership discount.
** Consulting and energy modeling fees could be higher with other companies.

Credit list overview

To receive a LEED building certification a project needs to gain 55 points from credits of choice and to comply to mandatory requirements, which are divided in 6 main categories.
Below are shown main credits/ requirements for each category.

Location and transport

• Surrounding Density & Diverse Uses
• Access to quality transit
• Bicycle facilities
• Reduced parking footprint
• Green vehicles

​Sustainable sites

• Construction Activity Pollution Prevention (Mandatory)
• ​Open space
• Rainwater management
• Heat island reduction
• ​Light pollution reduction
  

Energy & Atmosphere

• ​Minimum energy performance (Mandatory)
• Optimize energy performance
• Renewable energy production
• Green power and carbon offsets
• Advanced Energy Metering
  

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Indoor Environmental Quality

• Minimum Indoor Air Quality Performance (Mandatory)
  
• Low-Emitting Materials
  
• Thermal comfort
• Daylight - Spatial Daylight Analysis
• Quality views

Material & Resources

• Construction and Demolition Waste Management Planning (Mandatory)
  
• Building life-cycle impact reduction
• Building product disclosure - EPD
• Building product disclosure - Sourcing

More details...

​Water efficiency

• Outdoor Water Use Reduction (Mandatory + optional)
• Indoor Water Use Reduction (Mandatory + optional)
• Water metering

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Integrative process (1point)
This is the most important process, but not sufficiently valued from the LEED certification scoring. It consists of doing an energy modelling analysis at the schematic design to optimize: shadings, shapes, orientations, envelope, lighting, and schedules.

Then the project team have to document how this analysis contributed to the high performance building under certification.
The same analysis and documentation is also required for water consumption systems.

Hopefully in the future, teams would follow an integrated approach to design to improve the efficiency of our building environment.

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