Texas ranks tenth in the country in Leadership Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. That's according to a report issued by the U.S. Green Building Council, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that issues LEED certification.
The LEED 100-point scale rates the design, construction, and operation of buildings, neighborhoods, and homes to promote sustainable infrastructure. It looks at factors such as sustainability, water and energy efficiency, materials, indoor environmental quality, as well as design and innovation to issue one of four different levels of certification: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Through 2012, Texas has racked up a total of 191,193,361 square feet of LEED-certified space—adding a total of 1.43 square feet per Texan last year. Washington, D.C. ranked first in added LEED-certified square footage last year.
Important LEED projects that bolstered Texas’s green efforts in 2012 included the Dallas Convention Center Hotel, the first LEED Gold certified hotel in the state, and the new 149,000 square foot Student Activity Center on the University of Texas at Austin Campus.
KUT’s new home in the Belo Center for New Media was designed to LEED requirements. The new building contains numerous design and sustainability innovations and is applying to receive Silver certification from the USGBC.
Another of UT's new buildings, the new College of Liberal Arts Building, is expected to receive LEED Gold certification. The 200,000-square-foot structure is made of glass and limestone.
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