Owners and project teams choose LEED certification to inform, benchmark, and celebrate their sustainability goals and achievements. LEED's framework - built on decades of expertise - empowers people to choose green options that align with their project’s vision and needs.

The project teams identify a vision for the project’s goals, scope, and spatial program, then the rating system that fits the project best. For example, if the project’s scope is a new building or substantial renovations, LEED Building Design and Construction rating system is selected or The Projects that focus on new interiors, LEED for Interior Design and Construction will be selected and so on. Within these rating systems, there are adaptations for common project types, such as Schools, Hospitals, Data Warehouses, Core and Shell, and more. These adaptations highlight sustainable approaches that are unique to specific building types.

Once the rating system is selected the team reviews the Minimum Program Requirements and prerequisites of the selected rating system. When the project team has determined that these requirements can be met, the next step is to develop a certification strategy and select the credits that the project will pursue. The strategy is tailored to the project’s identity, region, site, and specific experiential, environmental, and financial goals. Project teams often identify an ideal case, where they achieve all of their desired credit thresholds, and also a minimum case, where they achieve at least the 40 points that are required for certification.