LEED certification is becoming a hot topic around the world. Surprisingly, this otherwise helpful map based infographic fails to explain what LEED is, but we did a bit of background research to fill you in. LEED is a certification process offered by the U.S. Green Buildings Council and according to the council:
“LEED is a green building tool that addresses the entire building lifecycle, recognizing best-in-class building strategies.”
(Check out http://www.usgbc.org/leed for more info).
While LEED originated in the United States, it is used around the globe. Just check out the above map and you can see various global stats!
The United States leads in terms of gross square meters (GSM) and number of LEED certified buildings. In fact, the U.S. is home to 658.1 million GSM and nearly 45,000 certified buildings! That’s a whole lot of space!
I was a bit surprised to see East Asia come in second place with just over 107 million GSM and 1,995 different buildings. I guess that makes sense, however, given how huge East Asia’s population is. Still, I figured that Europe’s strong focus on sustainability would mean that they’d rank quite high, but there are only 74.5 million GSM and 1706 different projects.
In terms of countries, the United States and Canada take the top two spots, which should come as no surprise. I was a bit surprised to see China and the United Arab Emirates take 3rd and 4th place respectively, but props to them! Brazil and India follow directly behind, and that surprised me too!
Anyways, check out the above map and see where your home country’s world rank!
