United States. The US Green Building Council (USGBC) released its annual list of the Top 10 LEED States, ranking them in terms of square footage of LEED space per capita of the respective state.
Illinois held its top national position for the second year in a row with 174 LEED certifications representing 3.31 square feet with LEED certification per resident. Two newcomers to the list, Georgia and Arizona, showed that 2014 was a year of great growth for LEED in the South and Southwest, while the continued strong performance of Maryland and Virginia helped the mid-Atlantic region remain the epicenter of sustainable building across the country.
Washington, District of Columbia, which is not included in the official list of major states due to its status as a federal territory, is notable as it continues to lead the country, with 29.44 square meters of space per resident certified in 2014. Maryland and Virginia finished third and fourth, respectively, and both states increased their per capita totals of 2.70 and 2.33 square meters of LEED space per capita, respectively, in 2014.
The 2014 list had the highest average (2.34) of certified per capita space per resident by state since 2010, and the second-highest average to date. Illinois and Colorado are the only two states on the list each year since 2010. The full standings are as follows: Illinois, Colorado, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, Hawaii, California, Georgia, Minnesota and Arizona and New York tied for tenth place.
Collectively, 1,662 commercial and institutional projects became LEED-certified within 10 states in 2014, representing 251.7 million square feet of real estate. Now in its fifth year, the per capita list is based on data from the 2010 U.S. Census, and includes certified commercial and institutional green building projects throughout 2014.
