The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) today released its annual ranking of U.S. states leading the way on green building, and California made the top ten at number four. USGBC’s ranking is based on LEED-certified gross square footage per capita over the past year. The LEED rating system is the world’s most widely used green building program and was created by USGBC as a leadership standard defining best practices for healthy, high-performing green buildings.
“It was a strong year for LEED certifications across the U.S. as companies and governments embrace LEED as a tool for meeting ESG goals and organizational commitments to climate action, occupant wellbeing and resource efficiency,” said Peter Templeton, USGBC president and CEO. “In California and beyond, LEED buildings are environmentally friendly, cutting their emissions and waste, and use less energy and water. At the same time, they also help reduce operational and maintenance costs, contributing to the bottom line.”
In 2022, California had 386 LEED-certified projects, totaling over 96.4 million square feet or 2.44 square feet per capita. Office buildings, residential apartment buildings, government buildings and schools were among those that were LEED-certified last year.
The states ranking ahead of California were Massachusetts (3.76 LEED-certified square feet per resident), Illinois (3.47 square feet per capita), and New York (3.17 square feet per capita).
As a federal territory, Washington, D.C., does not appear in the official top 10 list of states, but it consistently leads the nation in LEED-certified square footage per capita, in part because of the federal government and District’s ongoing commitments to green building. In 2022, the nation’s capital certified over 46 square feet of space per resident across 115 green building projects.
All top ten states are listed here:
| Rank | State | Projects | Gross Area (SqFt) | 2022 GSF Per Capita |
| * | District of Columbia | 115 |
31,759,516
|
46.06
|
| 1 |
Massachusetts
| 96
|
26,442,008
| 3.76 |
| 2 |
Illinois
| 91
|
44,577,321
| 3.48 |
| 3 |
New York
| 142
|
64,042,120
| 3.17 |
| 4 |
California
| 386
|
96,457,139
| 2.44 |
| 5 |
Maryland
| 80
|
14,769,661
| 2.39 |
| 6 |
Georgia
| 66
|
24,068,422
| 2.25 |
| 7 |
Colorado
| 59 |
12,532,909
| 2.17 |
| 8 |
Virginia
| 95 |
16,289,394
| 1.89 |
| 9 |
Texas
| 174 |
48,717,532
| 1.67 |
| 10 |
Oregon
| 36 |
6,066,035
| 1.43 |
In 2022, the top 10 states certified 1,225 projects and over 355 million gross square feet under LEED.
Since it was first established in 1998, LEED’s metrics-based system has set the standard for healthy, resilient, green buildings. In 2022, USGBC surpassed 100,000 LEED-certified projects globally, totaling more than 11 billion certified gross square feet.
Additional information on the 2022 rankings, along with a listing of notable projects, can be found here.