China first, India second on LEED 2025
list: USGBC and GBCI release global rankings
¨
United States Green
Building Council (USGBC) and Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) have
placed China first and India second outside the United States of America in the
2025 LEED list.
¨
The United States Green
Building Council (USGBC) and Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) released
the latest ‘annual list’ of 10 countries and regions for Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design (LEED) in 2025, outside the United States of America
(USA).
¨
The United States
continues to lead globally in LEED adoption with more than 50 million gross
square meters of certified space.
¨
Outside the US, Mainland
China topped the list with 26,645,737 gross square meters (GSM) of
LEED-certified space across 1,939 projects.
¨
According to the list,
India moved from third position in 2024 to second position in 2025 in terms of
total LEED-certified space, recording more than 16,111,512 gross square meters
(GSM) across 611 projects during the year.
Key results of USGBC LEED List 2025
¨
LEED Certification: There
was a significant increase in LEED certification worldwide last year, with more
than 7,500 commercial projects certified, totaling over 147 million GSM.
¨
Global Leader: USA
remains the global leader in LEED adoption, with 50,129,093 GSM of certified
space across 2,228 projects.
¨
Other countries in the
list: Canada ranked third with 288 projects covering 8,450,146 GSM, followed by
the Republic of Korea with 100 projects (3,879,192 GSM) and Mexico with 144
projects (3,294,953 GSM).
¨
The Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) ranked
sixth with 3,158,950 GSM across 96 projects, followed by Brazil in seventh
place with 2,933,631 GSM across 171 projects.
¨
Vietnam entered the top
10 ranking for the first time, ranking eighth with 2,602,797 GSM across 100
projects, while Sweden ranked ninth with 2,564,921 GSM across 183 projects.
¨
The United Arab Emirates
secured a place in the top 10 by recording 2,251,714 GSM across 174
LEED-certified projects.
¨
In 2025, the largest and
fastest growth in LEED-certified space occurred in industrial manufacturing and
warehousing.
History of USGBC
¨
In April 1993, Rick
Fedrizzi, David Gottfried, and Mike Italiano invited representatives from 60
firms and several non-profits to the boardroom of the American Institute of
Architects for a founding meeting.
¨
Then, ideas were shared
for an open and balanced coalition across the entire building industry and for
a green building rating system, which later became LEED.
¨
By 1998, USGBC had
successfully developed LEED 1.0 and started pilot testing with 19 projects.
After the success of the pilot program, LEED for new construction was publicly
launched in March 2000.
