USGBC Provides List of LEED Project Innovations

In January 2008 the U.S. Green Building Council published an “Innovation & Design Credit Catalog” listing the actions that project teams have taken to earn innovation points in LEED. The catalog, a 28-page PDF file, lists about 200 innovations. Items on the list range widely and include solutions such as reduced steel in a structural system, good acoustical design, and food composting. Some are simply adaptations of a credit from one LEED rating system into another—such as the low-emitting furniture credit from LEED for Commercial Interiors, used (presumably) in LEED for New Construction. Unfortunately, the catalog doesn’t identify the rating system in which each innovation point was achieved, so some of those crossover credits can be confusing. Users are warned that solutions listed in the catalog are not guaranteed to be approved on subsequent products, as standards may change over time and some points are awarded based on specific project circumstances. The catalog is available here: http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=3569.