January 18, 2023

The Top Green Building States & Projects of 2022

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Top 10 U.S. states for LEED Certified projects. Plus, the Largest 20 U.S. and Canada LEED projects.

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has released its annual ranking of U.S. states leading the way on green building, with Massachusetts topping the list. The USGBC 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 well-being and resource efficiency,” said Peter Templeton, USGBC president and CEO. “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.”

The states following Massachusetts — where 96 buildings encompassing over 26 million square feet were LEED-certified in 2022, equating to nearly 3.7 LEED-certified square feet per resident — were Illinois (3.47 square feet per capita), New York (3.17 square feet per capita), California (2.43 square feet per capita) and Maryland (2.39 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 the 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.

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 nearly 353 million gross square feet under LEED.

Since it was first established in 2000, 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.

The Top 20 projects that earned LEED Certification in the United States in 2022

A total of 1458 projects earned LEED Certification in the United States during 2022. Six of the top 20 were recertifications of in-use projects that have previously achieved LEED certification. Here are the largest ones.

PROJECT	LOCATION	LEED Level	SQUARE FT.
Georgia World Congress Center 2nd Recert	Atlanta, GA	Gold	3,920,000
55 Water Street Recertification	New York, NY	Gold	3,486,407
New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention	New Orleans, LA	Gold	3,080,864
One Liberty Plaza	New York, NY	Gold	2,346,000
1515 Broadway Recertification	New York, NY	Gold	2,058,982
VOLVO Car US Operation	Ridgeville, SC	Gold	2,027,362
1600 Smith	Houston, TX	Gold	1,900,000
320 South Canal	Chicago, IL	Gold	1,793,680
Confidential	Confidential, CA	Platinum	1,768,089
Calmart Property Redevelopment	Los Angeles, CA	Gold	1,740,000
399 Park Avenue	New York, NY	Silver	1,730,577
Boca Raton Innovation Campus	Boca Raton, FL	Gold	1,722,812
Medline Grayslake Distribution Center	Grayslake, IL	Certified	1,445,396
Wells Fargo Center Recertification	Minneapolis, MN	Gold	1,340,572
Confidential	Confidential, DC	Silver	1,302,859
SFO Courtyard 3 Connector Project	San Francisco, CA	Gold	1,283,348
River Point Recertification	Chicago, IL	Platinum	1,239,203
Confidential	Confidential, OH	Certified	1,237,145
Medline Savannah	Richmond Hill, GA	Certified	1,206,907
One Queensridge Place Recertification	Las Vegas, NV	Silver	1,178,346

The Top 20 projects that earned LEED Certification in Canada in 2022

A total of 107 projects earned LEED Certification in Canada during 2022. Here are the largest ones.

NOTES:

Ranked by square footage. A 10.7639 multiplier was used to convert square meters to square footage on certain projects not already cited in square footage.
When reading this Canadian chart, the word "project" is pronounced with a long "o" as in "pro."

PROJECT	LOCATION	LEED Level	SQUARE FT.
Yorkdale Shopping Centre	Toronto, ON	Gold	2,701,461
CBC Toronto Broadcast Centre	Toronto, ON	Gold	1,975,109
Complexe LL Phase 3, SEC	Brossard, QC	Certified	1,798,863
484 Spadina	Toronto, ON	Silver	1,614,585
Centre de distribution Beloeil	BELOEIL, QC	Certified	1,446,991
Edifice Marly	Quebec, QC	Gold	947,214
Prologis Park 410 DC3	Caledon, ON	Silver	847,646
CAE COMOX Flight Training Center	Comox, BC	Silver	695,165
333-355 North River Road	Ottawa, ON	Silver	587,913
Project Fire	Guelph, ON	Certified	585,449
Prologis Hamilton DC1-Bridgestone	Hamilton, ON	Silver	451,951
iPort Caledon Building F	Bolton, ON	Certified	407,713
1652/1672 Tricont Avenue	Whitby, ON	Silver	370,859
HSBC Place	Edmonton, AB	Gold	357,997
Toyota Parts Distribution Centre	Clarington, ON	Gold	343,993
River Landing - North Tower	Saskatoon, SK	Gold	283,317
285-295 Coventry Road	Ottawa, ON	Silver	281,067
Selection Retraite Gatineau	Gatineau, QC	Certified	270,185
1170 Peel - Le Windsor	Montreal, QC	Gold	267,152
Winnipeg Station	Winnipeg, MB	Gold	248,502