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Leed Practices
What is it?
LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.
The Benefits
LEED homes offer numerous benefits to home owners, including lower energy and water bills; reduced greenhouse gas emissions; increased comfort, less exposure to indoor pollutants such as mold, mildew and other indoor toxins, and lower maintenance costs. Owners of LEED homes can feel good every day, in that they are doing something substantial to lessen their contribution to environmental degradation.
Most important, these benefits are very affordable. The net monthly cost of owning a LEED home (i.e., mortgage payment plus utility bills) is comparable to that of the monthly cost of owning a conventional code-built home. The increase in the mortgage payment (due to the first cost of the green upgrade measures in a LEED home) is usually completely offset by the reduced monthly utility bills. So, a homebuyer can have all of the benefits of a LEED Home for the same net monthly cost as a code-built home. Which one would you choose?
The LEED for Homes program defines a green home as:
- Healthy
- Comfortable
- Durable
- Energy efficient, and
- Environmentally responsible
