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Growth and evolution
Today, some 3.2 billion square feet are registered or certified under LEED — more than 11,000 commercial and public buildings nationwide. Various LEED initiatives including legislation, executive orders, resolutions, ordinances, policies and incentives are found in 90 cities, 29 counties, 20 towns, 30 states, 12 federal agencies or departments, 15 public school jurisdictions and 37 institutions of higher education across the United States.

LEED continues to grow and adapt to meet the needs of the marketplace. When it was first developed, LEED was primarily used for newly built commercial and institutional buildings. Since then, the LEED rating systems have been created to address specific building types. In the past year, USGBC has launched rating systems for schools and residential homes, and pilot programs are under way to help LEED target the specific needs of retail and healthcare applications.

As LEED continues to expand to address specific applications, the overall LEED system is also evolving to reflect changing needs and increasing urgency to find solutions to climate change and energy dependence. The evolution of LEED is a multi-faceted initiative to streamline and create capacity for LEED project execution, documentation and certification. This initiative is referred to as LEED Version 3 (commonly referred to as LEED v3). In the spirit of the most successful LEED projects, this initiative has been undertaken in an integrated fashion made up of three key pieces: 1) LEED 2009 — LEED Rating System updates/revisions. 2) Revision and evolution of the LEED certification process. 3) LEED Online v3.

In mid-May, the USGBC Board of Directors sent LEED 2009 out for public comment. LEED 2009 includes four major areas of innovation:

1. The alignment and harmonization of prerequisites and credits across all LEED rating systems for commercial buildings. Whereas in the past there were a large number of different LEED rating systems — LEED for New Construction, LEED for Existing Buildings, LEED for Core & Shell and LEED for Commercial Interiors, for example — LEED 2009 will consolidate these into their "most effective common denominator." LEED for Homes and the pilot LEED for Neighborhood Development rating systems will remain separate.