Since 2008 the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) has offered the marketplace the highest-level validation that LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building certifications and LEED professional credentials meet specific, rigorous criteria.

On its website, the GBCI says,

The Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) recognizes excellence in green building practice and performance globally through its third-party certification services and professional credentials supporting market transformation.

There are currently LEED certifications for a variety of sectors.

After working on the project for nearly eight years, LEED for Neighborhood Development formally launched in the spring.

LEED for Neighborhood Development integrates the principles of smart growth, new urbanism and green building and benefits communities by reducing urban sprawl, increasing transportation choice and decreasing automobile dependence, encouraging healthy living, and protecting threatened species…

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan says the agency will now use the LEED-ND criteria to judge federal grant competitions.

Where people are voting with their feet more and more — in search of walkable neighborhoods with transportation options. And where the global threat of climate change is very real. That’s why, for the first time in the history of federal grant competitions, I want to announce today that HUD will be using location-efficiency to score our grant applications. Using the ‘LEED-ND’ green neighborhood rating system CNU developed in partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council and Green Building Council, it’s time that federal dollars stopped encouraging sprawl and started lowering the barriers to the kind of sustainable development our country needs and our communities want. And with $3.25 billion at stake in these competitions, that’s exactly what they will start to do.

You can read more about LEED-ND by visiting the the GBCI website.