Each month the US Green Building Council updates their real-time state market briefs, a trove of data displaying where each state is in size, space, and projects either having earned or working toward LEED Certification. While a quick look at the reports leads quickly to conclusions showing California is farthest ahead in certification and states such as West Virginia simply do not care, breaking out each data point tells a different story.
Here, we’ve heatmapped certification level density from the market briefs updated in May. Many commercial new construction projects have the resources and funds available to achieve LEED Certification, but to go above and beyond and reach LEED Platinum—the highest possible certification requiring 80 or more points—indicates a drive to be as green in building construction and perfomance as possible.
Which states tends to achieve higher standards with new projects? Below are the top 10 states for percent of projects achieving the LEED Platinum certification.
Top 10 States for Percent of Projects Achieving LEED Platinum:
1.
Oregon 12.66%
2.
Montana 12.31%
3.
District of Columbia 11.79%
4.
Kansas 10.53%
5.
Hawaii 9.85%
6.
California 9.19%
7.
Wyoming 8.16%
8.
Vermont 8.05%
9.
Iowa 7.50%
10.
Colorado 6.90%
The second highest achievable level on the LEED rating scale is LEED Gold, which still marks a higher number of awarded LEED points and Certification than LEED Silver or LEED Certified and requires 60 to 79 points awarded on the USGBC scale for LEED v4. Below are the top 10 states for percent of projects achieving LEED Gold. Oregon and Wyoming, both of which also appear on the top 10 for LEED Platinum, are the only two states with more than 50% of projects achieving LEED Gold. Others to appear on both lists include Hawaii, D.C., and Colorado.
The Top 10 States for Percent of Projects Achieving LEED Gold:
1.
Oregon 51.09%
2.
Wyoming 51.02%
3.
Rhode Island 48.61%
4.
District of Columbia 46.67%
5.
Massachusetts 46.43%
6.
Hawaii 44.70%
7.
Colorado 43.72%
8.
Utah 43.43%
9.
Maryland 43.16%
10.
Washington 42.31%
Which states LEED by a particular space type? California has the largest number of buildings having achieved the LEED standard, and therefore tops the lists of projects for each space type, but other states show a clear focus on one form of project. For example, Texas has the second highest number of offices that have achieved LEED and New York is a leader is education projects. Here, check out the breakdown of number of projects achieving LEED in the top five states for each of the five most popular space types for LEED.
