LEED Rating System

Rating System for Buildings

There are several levels of certification a building can acquire: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum. In its fledgling years, the USGBC also had another category: Bronze, but it has since been put to rest, as the award did not require exceptional measures to gain certification. Each level of certification is defined by the number of points the project has both submitted for and been awarded.

LEED v2.0 Certification Rating System (Scale 1 – 69)
Certification Rating Points
Certified 26 – 32
Silver 33 – 38
Gold 39 – 51
Platinum 52 – 69

If you plan on taking the LEED AP Exam, these milestones should NOT be memorized. See below for what the new LEED v3 rating system follows. For more information on what should be memorized for the exam, visit the page here.

Note: As of February 2009, the highest score received on a Platinum project is 64 points. See the photo on the LEED main page of the Dockside Green in British Colombia. With the new scale coming out, a project looking to top the record would have to get over 93 points to beat this score.

LEED v3 Changes

The new version of LEED is going into effect this year. Projects already in progress under the old version will either follow those requirements or have the option to switch to the new LEED v3 Scorecard. The changes to the rating system are as follows:

LEED v3.0 Certification Rating System (Scale 1 – 100)
Certification Rating Points
Certified 40 – 49
Silver 50 – 59
Gold 60 – 79
Platinum 80 +

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