The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has released its ranking of the top 10 countries for LEED outside of the United States based on cumulative gross square meters (GSM) of space certified to LEED in each nation as of April 2014. To date, project teams in more than 140 countries and territories have implemented LEED in their building projects. Canada tops the list, with 17.74 million GSM of LEED space. Collectively, Canada boasts 4068 total LEED-registered and LEED-certified projects, representing 58.66 million total GSM of LEED space. China and India, two of the world’s fastest growing economies, took second and third place on the list, respectively boasting 14.30 million and 11.64 million GSM of LEED-certified space. In Europe, Germany and Finland secured spots 6 and 10, respectively — Germany with 2.90 million GSM of LEED-certified space and Finland with 1.45 million.
USGBC highlighted the 100 Wellington Street West Tower at the Dominion Centre in Toronto, ON. This project is the first in the city to achieve Platinum certification under LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance.
In June 2013, USGBC launched the LEED Earth campaign, offering free certification to the first projects to certify in the more than 100 countries where LEED has yet to take root. Since then, 15 projects in various nations have earned free certification, including Venezuela and Kuwait.
