Evaluating State-of-the-Art LEED-NCv4 in the U.S.

Abstract

To date, no empirical evidence has been published on the certification achievements of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for New Construction (LEED-NCv4) projects. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the trends in LEED-NCv4 Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum projects in the U.S. Boxplots were used to measure the consistency of achievement points in categories; Cliff’s δ was used to measure the effect size between possible points and achieved points in categories and credits. The findings show that (1) the categories Sustainable Sites and Energy and Atmosphere were well designed, with consistency increasing from level to level and almost all their credits achieving low–very high points; (2) the categories Water Efficiency and Indoor Environmental Quality showed an average design, and certification levels were found to be inconsistent across the projects and only approximately half of the credits achieved medium or high points, whereas the other half achieved low points; and (3) the categories Location and Transportation and Materials and Resources were the worst designed, with four certification levels found to be inconsistent across the projects and most of the credits achieved low points.