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 of the following metrics: 
Sustainable Sites
This category discourages development on previously undeveloped land; minimizes a building's impact on ecosystems and waterways.

Water Efficiency 
This category encourages smarter use of water, inside and out. Water reduction is typically achieved through more efficient appliances, fixtures and fittings inside and water-wise landscaping outside.

Energy & Atmosphere 
This category encourages a wide variety of energy strategies that utilize renewable and efficient energy solutions.

Materials & Resources
This category encourages the selection of sustainably grown, harvested, produced and transported products and materials used in building materials. 

Indoor Environmental Quality 
This category promotes strategies that can improve indoor air as well as providing access to natural daylight and views and improving acoustics.

Locations & Linkages
This category encourages homes being built away from environmentally sensitive places and instead being built in infill, previously developed and other preferable sites.

Awareness & Education
This category encourages home builders and real estate professionals to provide homeowners, tenants and building managers with the education and tools they need to understand what makes their home green.

Innovation in Design
Thiscategory provides bonus points for projects that use new and innovative technologies and strategies to improve a building’s performance well beyond what is required by other LEED credits or in green building considerations that are not specifically addressed elsewhere in LEED. 

For more information about LEED certification and the difference it makes in improving our environment, please visit www.usgbc.org