Understanding the need to educate and train in sustainable development principles and strategies, the USGBC has designed several professional credentials that demonstrate different levels of knowledge and skills for the application of the LEED Certification System.
The LEED guides propose a series of design and performance strategies to be implemented in a structure with the purpose of addressing the environmental impact issues as well as the operation and maintenance costs related to excessive consumption of energy, potable water and materials. It also aims to improve the interior environment of buildings to promote the production, use and welfare of the occupants and the surrounding community.
To maximize the results of the application of the strategies proposed by LEED, the scheme is based on propitiating the synergy between the diverse systems existing in a structure. This theory seeks to create closed cycles where the product of one process turns out to be the input of another. The proposal seeks to combine well-known strategies with modern technology to address the life cycle of a building. In addition, LEED provides metric tools that allow evaluating the most productive way to apply these strategies seeking their implementation from an integrated and iterative planning.
The LEED Green Associate credential demonstrates knowledge and non-technical skills to understand and support strategies, ideas and practices that form the basis of sustainable construction, as well as the critical points of the operation and maintenance of structures, specifically related to the LEED program.