Green Homes: 150,000 Now LEED Certified

There are as many as 150,000 LEED-certified green housing units worldwide, a number that more than doubled between 2011 and 2012 and continues to grow, according to the US Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED in Motion: Residential report.

The report also details the US states with the most LEED-certified homes, with California in the no. 1 spot followed by New York and Texas.

The report is the latest in USGBC’s LEED in Motion series designed to make the case for sustainable building practices worldwide. LEED-certified homes provide 20 to 30 percent savings in energy and water use compared to code-built homes, and they maximize fresh air indoors while minimizing exposure to airborne toxins and pollutants, USGBC says.

The report explores the multiple LEED rating systems for different types of homes, including new single-family homes as well as new and existing low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise multifamily buildings. USGBC is also developing a rating system for existing single-family homes.

Report highlights include:

• USGBC’s vision for sustainable living spaces, including ongoing monitoring of home performance and accommodation for the growing number of people living in cities.
• Examples of the widespread momentum in green residential building with green home project profiles that highlight successful strategies and outcomes.
• Interviews with green building thought leaders such as Tom Darden, executive director of Make It Right, which has built more than 100 LEED Platinum homes in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans to replace housing destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
• Profiles of successful projects such as Cincinnati’s Community Reinvestment Area Residential Property Tax Abatement program, in which 192 LEED-certified homes are currently participating.
• Recognition of the top 10 countries for LEED, demonstrating the international growth of green housing and profiling Gulnar Homes in Turkey, developers of a LEED Gold home in Istanbul.

Canada tops the list of the top 10 countries for LEED outside of the US with 17.74 million gross square meters of LEED space, according to a USGBC report published last month.