LEED was designed to encourage and accelerate global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted standards, tools, and performance criteria.
In addition to recommending policies to the USGBC Board, LEED Committees have primary responsibility for the development, implementation and revisions of LEED.
LEED committees are responsible for the improvement and implementation of LEED rating systems either in development or undergoing revisions. They remain in existence until their rating system is fully implemented.
In an effort to harmonize and align credits across LEED, the LEED committee structure has transitioned to include three core committees to oversee the project implementation process, market responsiveness, and technical rigor of LEED.
All LEED core committees have associated corresponding committees made up of USGBC members. Any interested member may join the corresponding committee to receive regular updates and minutes from the core committee and may submit questions or comments to the core committee. Core committee and working group members may be elected or appointed from the corresponding committee member body. Only corresponding committee members are eligible to vote in core committee elections.
- LEED Steering Committee
- This governing body of all LEED committees is responsible for developing and maintaining LEED as a leadership tool, preserving the integrity of the LEED rating systems, and ensuring the use of the consensus process to evolve LEED in accordance with the mission, guiding principles, and strategic plan of USGBC.
- Implementation Advisory Committee
- Advises on the scope, content and rigor of technical resources and tools supporting LEED programs, with the goal of maintaining LEED's integrity while also providing an effective, predictable and satisfying LEED customer engagement.
- Market Advisory Committee
- Advises on market transformation aspects of LEED in collaboration with USGBC staff, to ensure that LEED maintains leadership and continues to respond to the markets.
- Technical Committee
- Optimizes LEED's technical effectiveness and scientific validity across LEED credit categories and manages the work of the Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs).
- Administrative-Management Committee
- Assists the full LEED Steering Committee in handling of administrative tasks, process-related decisions, and approvals of selected appointments.
- Technical Advisory Groups
- Provide a consistent source of technical advice to LEED committees and working groups with respect to credit and prerequisite improvement and supporting tool development; ensure that the integrity of LEED is grounded on technical and scientific considerations of the highest quality.
- Rating System Committees
- These committees are responsible for the direction and decisions of LEED rating systems currently undergoing development or major revisions.