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Seattle has the most LEED certified buildings but is it the greenest?

I know I’ve questioned the validity of ratings before but this one is pretty cut and dry: according to the USGBC, Seattle has the most LEED certified buildings of any city in the country.

So what does that mean? Seattle has the most LEED certified buildings, but does that make it the greenest city?

Not according to a whole host of previous green city ratings - I wrote about that topic and Corvallis, Ore., being the greenest city earlier this year (to see it look under topic ratings below).

So Seattle’s got the most LEED certified buildings. Why? Is it the city’s policy of requiring projects that get public funding to be LEED silver (after all 10 of the LEED certified buildings are owned by the city of Seattle including Seattle City Hall). Is it a critical mass of green-oriented architects in the city? Is it incentives? What do you think? Comment and tell me what in Seattle really made LEED take off.

If we take a step back from Seattle, Washington State isn’t doing too bad itself. According to Cascadia’s latest Greenbuilder newsletter (an excellent source of information that I would recommend anyone interested in regional green building sign up for) as of April 3, the regional stats look like this:

Washington has 83 LEED certified projects with another 503 registered, or on the boards. Oregon has 69 certified projects and 315 registered. British Columbia has 32 certified projects and 199 registered. And Alaska has three certified projects and 22 registered.

And check out the other cities that round out the list of top five. They are (in order): Portland, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Grand Rapids, Mich. Pretty much the usual subjects, though some of you might be doing a double take at Grand Rapids. The city is actually quite a green leader and has a lot of new construction going on. For a more localized explanation, though written in 2006, check out the Rapid Growth site at http://www.rapidgrowthmedia.com/features/sustain16.aspx.

By the way my blogging program is acting up… hopefully tomorrow it will let me do everything it’s supposed to like make links. More on this tomorrow!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 9:44 pm and is filed under LEED, Ratings, Seattle, USGBC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Seattle has the most LEED certified buildings but is it the greenest?”

  1. keith Says:
    April 23rd, 2008 at 10:10 pm

    Can’t say why LEED has caught on here but, even as a LEED AP, I question the validity if the rating system since it focuses explicitly on the energy use of the actual building rather than how the building is used. For instance, the very existence of Helios House, a LEED certified gas station in Los Angeles, turns me off immensely, as I’m sure it does most people.

    Having lived in Texas and Colorado, I can comfortably say that Seattle has a “greener mentality” but we are also years behind even Dallas on light rail.

  2. Carol Says:
    January 11th, 2009 at 7:49 pm

    It’s wonderful to see Seattle lead in LEED development. We look forward to continue assisting the Seattle commercial property owners with receiving the maximum federal energy tax deductions for building energy efficient buildings according to ASHRAE 90.1-2001 and making our world a Greener place.

    Kudos to Seattle!

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