| | LEED General Contractor ArticlesThe LEED Rating
System and the U.S. Green Building CouncilBy Matty
Byloos What Is the LEED® Rating System?LEED stands for the
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. This distinction is a property
of the U.S. Green Building Council, a non-profit organization that is devoted
at its foundational level to increasing the use of sustainable and green building
practices across the fifty states. The USGBC has in its ranks 12,000 plus
organizations that span the breadth of the country and all facets of the building
and construction industries. These member organizations work collectively in order
to implement and advance building structures that are at once environmentally
safe and sound, as well as profitable for the business person involved. Further,
their structures are set up to be healthy dwellings in which to live, and healthy
buildings in which to work. Membership is varied in its ranks, and includes developers,
architects, general contractors, agencies of the government and other nonprofit
organizations. What Does LEED® Mean and Who Gets Rated?LEED's
"Green Building Rating System™" attempts to certify and push the advancement of
a planet-wide implementation of green building and development practices. Their
goal is to accomplish this through the creation of a universal set of tools and
performance standards. LEED has certification and performance standards
for divisions of building such as "New Construction," which is designed to foster
the growth of and distinguish commercial projects and new institutions conforming
to green building practices at the highest levels; for "Existing Buildings," LEED
has instituted guidelines for maintenance and ongoing operation, which gives building
owners and operators a standard of environmental excellence to reach for; there
is even a set of standards for "Schools," which serves to put special guidelines
in place for the potentially unique nature of the concerns facing school spaces.
In addition to these three divisions, there are also standards for "Commercial
Interiors," "Core and Shell," "Retail," "Healthcare," "Homes" and "Neighborhood
Development." LEED Proposed Core MissionLEED, a voluntary proposal
at this time, is essentially a nationally-recognized rating system, agreed on
by consensus, that seeks to develop sustainable buildings that perform at the
highest levels. LEED is a set of standards that can be applied individually to
all unique building types, as noted above. LEED places great emphasis on "state-of-the-art
strategies" for green and sustainable development of building sites. This includes
but is not limited to the following: efficient energy use, water use, selection
of green materials and careful choosing of resources, and the quality levels of
indoor environments. LEED serves builders, owners and designers alike --
a rating tool that is practical and user-friendly in nature, a manner by which
green building design and construction might be implemented and held to the highest
of standards. Best of all, the results are immediate and universal when the LEED
ratings standards are used. About the AuthorMatty
Byloos writes and manages the Green Blog known as: Green
Eggs and Planet, LEED,
USGBC Article
Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matty_Byloos
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-LEED-Rating-System-and-the-US-Green-Building-Council&id=917210  | Bob
Moore ConstructionThis website was created to promote green building and
LEED general contractors, by Bob Moore Construction Company. Bob Moore Construction
is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the first Platinum
Level member of the north Texas chapter of USGBC, and maintains a LEED AP on staff.
A leading general contractor in Texas since 1946, Bob Moore Construction is a
member of Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), Tilt-up Concrete Association,
and the OSHA Local Partnership Program. For more information about Bob Moore Construction
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