USGBC Announces List of Top 10 States for LEED Green Buildings
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently released its 2011 list of the top 10 states for LEED-certified commercial and institutional green buildings per capita, based on the U.S. 2010 Census information.
By Jessica Fiur, News Editor
Washington, D.C.—The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently released its 2011 list of the top 10 states for LEED-certified commercial and institutional green buildings per capita, based on the U.S. 2010 Census information. The number one ranking state was Washington, D.C. The top LEED states per capita, including Washington, D.C., are listed in the chart below.
| Sq. ft. of space to earn LEED certification in 2011 | Per capita | |
| District of Columbia | 18,954,022 | 31.50 |
| Colorado | 13,803,113 | 2.74 |
| Illinois | 34,567,585 | 2.69 |
| Virginia | 19,358,193 | 2.42 |
| Washington | 14,667,558 | 2.18 |
| Maryland | 11,970,869 | 2.07 |
| Texas | 50,001,476 | 1.99 |
| California | 71,551,296 | 1.92 |
| New York | 36,538,981 | 1.89 |
| Minnesota | 9,591,445 | 1.81 |
USGBC stresses that these results really capture the human element of going green.
“Green buildings are really about people: They’re the places we work, play, learn, live, heal, etc.,” Jennifer Easton, communication associate, USGBC, tells MHN. “They also underscore the human commitment to the environment and community prosperity. We chose to look at the hard data–LEED-certified square footage in each state – and stack it up against each state’s population in order to zero in on the human element of green building. The result is a relative snapshot of how much exposure each state resident has to LEED green building space, and an overview of the states that accelerated their portfolio of LEED-certified places in 2011.”
In December 2011, USGBC announced that LEED-certified existing buildings outpaced their newly built counterparts by 15 million square feet on a cumulative basis.
