LEED Residential Update

The U.S. Green Building Council’s success with a green building rating system for commercial buildings has led to the formation of a task force to develop a residential LEED system. Approximately 40 experts in energy-efficiency, indoor air quality, materials, and sustainable land development recently met at the Johnson Foundation’s Wingspread conference facility in Racine, Wisconsin to develop the first draft of the residential program. A key aspect of this program’s development—an element that LEED for commercial buildings did not have to address—will be the relationship between any residential LEED system and the many existing local and regional green building programs, as well as national programs such as ALA’s Health House. Work on the LEED-R program criteria will continue over the next six to nine months. For more information look online at www.usgbc.org or call the Council’s transitional Washington, D.C. office at 202/429-2081 (good through September).