-By Tim McEnery

Over the last five years, there has been an expansive growth and interest in the U.S. market around green buildings and sustainable design principles. The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has been at the forefront of this movement in the United States and is now setting its sights on expanding its mission into an embracing international marketplace. There are reasons to be optimistic about the international market's acceptance of sustainable design principles into its built environment as we all work to reduce the impacts of buildings on the environment.

According to the Energy Information Administration, buildings are one of the heaviest consumers of natural resources and account for a significant portion of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that affect climate change. In the United States, buildings account for 38 percent of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Given these figures, it is clear buildings significantly contribute to the global climate change problem but they are also a central part to a solution. Moreover, the academic and professional arenas have responded with studies and analyses providing data around the benefits of greening the built environment to address the reduction of energy and water consumption, lower maintenance costs, higher occupant satisfaction, and lower GHG emissions.

The LEED Green Building Rating System, developed by the USGBC, is an internationally recognized certification system that measures how well a building or community performs. LEED provides building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations, and maintenance solutions. Today there are LEED projects in 103 countries. When looking at the total amount of LEED registered floor space, over 25 percent derives from the international community. This translates to 9 percent of all registered LEED projects.

A large stakeholder, which is assisting in USGBC's mission of market transformation, is the group of member organizations in the global marketplace. Currently, the USGBC is composed of more than 20,000 organizations from across the building industry. With such a large array of constituents, both domestic and international, collaboration and interaction is vital toward achieving greater penetration and market growth.

A culture of transparency establishes an open-door policy where lessons learned and best practices are shared with others, tying together the important role green buildings play in reducing global climate change. The USGBC regularly hosts visiting delegations comprising students, building professionals, government officials, and market analysts from China, Russia, Japan, the Nordics, the United Kingdom, and Australia, discussing such topics as the transformation of the building market in the United States and how they can affect such similar transformations in their own countries.

USGBC also works closely with several of the Green Building Councils (GBCs) in the world, sharing information on successes and losses in regards to programs and education around sustainability. Currently, the Council is engaged with several groups around future collaboration, capacity development through education, and market strategies around green buildings. Specifically, LEED has been adapted by the Canada GBC and the Indian GBC in addition to discussions with GBC Italia and GBC Brasil for LEED adaptations.

In March 2009, the USGBC teamed with the UK Green Building Council, Building Research Establishment (BRE), and GBC Australia with a signed memorandum of understanding to map and develop common metrics to measure emissions of CO2 equivalents from new homes and buildings with the BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), LEED, and Green Star. Green Star is developed and administered by the Green Building Council Australia and BREEAM is owned by research and education charity the BRE Trust and operated by BRE Global, based in the United Kingdom. An outcome would be that all of us would be able to publish comparable "report cards" that would demonstrate the CO2 emissions impacts of the use of LEED, BREEAM, and Green Star.

USGBC recently collaborated with the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) on a global program called the Climate Positive Development Program. The program supports the development of 16 large-scale urban projects in 10 countries on six continents demonstrating cities can grow in ways that are "climate" positive. When the initial 16 projects are completed, nearly one million people will live and work in Climate Positive communities. These communities will be located in: Melbourne, Australia; Palhoça, Brazil; Toronto; Victoria, Canada; Ahmedabad, India; Jaipur, India; outside Panama City, Panama; Pretoria, South Africa; Johannesburg; Seoul, South Korea; Stockholm, Sweden; London; San Francisco; and Destiny, Fla.

Avenues for collaboration and knowledge-sharing around green building takes many forms internationally. Outside of meetings and conferences, USGBC has an extensive and diversified education program that allows us to reach out to international professionals with education programs either in-country or on-line. Examples of successful courses have been in the United Arab Emirates, Guam, Sri Lanka, China, and Mexico with future courses planned for Jordan, Colombia, Italy, Sweden, Finland, India, and Brazil.

Moving forward internationally, USGBC will continue to engage with design communities, professional associations, and foreign governments to increase awareness of the concepts of sustainable design. As a worldwide advocate of the LEED principles, USGBC will continue to focus on capacity development in North America, the Middle East, China, Brazil, India, Italy, and selected other countries. It is apparent that the worldwide marketplace is making a connection with green buildings, sustainable design concepts, and a healthier built environment.

Collaboratively advancing regionally appropriate and effective green building practices, policies, and adaptations is central to efforts to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built, and operated. Enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life is the ultimate goal for all of us. And we look forward to continued collaboration and engagement with other national green building councils who feel LEED can be a useful tool.

As the vice president of international, Tim McEnery is responsible for the development and execution of USGBC's international strategy around LEED.