LEED® & Other Building Certification Programs Visitors to Greensburg will hear a lot of talk about LEED, so we thought we’d use this space to explain what this means, and introduce you to other “green” building certification programs as well.
LEED® LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Env Environmental Design. It is an internationally-recognized program that was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council and first used in the marketplace in 2000. There are several reasons why the LEED system was developed and why it has been so important in the past decade. It helps define what a “green” building is by establishing a common standard of measurement. It raises awareness of the benefits of building in an environmentally-friendly way. It has helped stimulate green competition in the designing and building industries, while recognizing leadership in these areas. When an individual or entity sets out to build to LEED standards, they work with someone certified as a LEED professional from the outset. This person works alongside the design team and builders to ensure compliance and provide guidance in adhering to standards. There are nine major areas that LEED addresses:
Materials & Resources
Regional Priority
Location & Planning
Indoor Environmental Quality
Sustainable Sites
Energy & Atmosphere
Innovation & Design Process
Water Efficiency
Awareness & Education
As you can see, it’s not just about the building. LEED also addresses such issues as air quality, alternative transportation (e.g., bike racks), water-wise landscaping, and the distance that building materials have to travel to be used on a job. Points are assigned for each area of compliance. The more points that are achieved, the higher the rating. There are four levels of LEED: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The City of Greensburg passed a resolution in 2007 to build to LEED Platinum standards – the highest level - in all new construction City-owned buildings of 4,000 square feet or larger. We are the first city to make such a commitment. Greensburg has five Platinum projects that have received certification: 5.4.7 Arts Center, Kiowa County Memorial Hospital, SunChips Business Incubator, Prairie Pointe Townhomes and BTI - Greensburg (the local John Deere dealership). The Kiowa County Maintenance Facility has been awarded LEED Silver, and Centera Bank is LEED Certified. As of this writing, the community is waiting to hear on the Kiowa County Courthouse (going for Gold), Greensburg City Hall and Kiowa County Schools (each going for Platinum), and the Kiowa County Sheriff’s Department and the City of Greensburg Public Works facility (each built to Silver standards). Additionally, the Kiowa County Commons and the Big Well Museum are being built to LEED Platinum standards. For more information on LEED, please visit the U.S. Green Building Council website: www.usgbc.org
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