Colorado Ranks 9th Among Top 10 States for LEED in 2024 

The Concourse A expansion project at DIA incorporated an energy efficiency strategy to achieve a LEED Gold status. Photo courtesy of HNTB Corp.

USGBC reports that Colorado certified 13.8 million gross square feet of LEED space in 2024. Colorado has ranked among the Top 10 States for LEED since the tracking began in 2010. With the second most credential holders per capita, just behind the District of Columbia, it’s no wonder Colorado is a consistent leader in green building across the country.

In 2024, Colorado ranked ninth, with 13.8 million gross square feet of LEED-certified space.

Colorado in 2024:

  • Gross square footage certified: 13.8 million
  • Gross square footage certified per capita: 2.4
  • Commercial certifications: 64
  • LEED for Building Design and Construction projects: 26
  • LEED for Interior Design and Construction projects: 16
  • LEED for Operations and Maintenance projects: 22
Notable Projects

Here are a few projects that stood out in 2024:

While USGBC’s top 10 rankings consider only the commercial footprint, Colorado also sees a significant amount of LEED residential certifications each year. 2024 was no exception, with 144 projects certified, totaling 2,369,819 square feet and 1,581 residential units.

Visit USGBC’s public LEED project directory to learn about other certified projects in the state.

Community Leading the Way

The state’s successes can be largely attributed to the community of USGBC member organizations and credentialed professionals elevating the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated to better support occupants and surrounding environments.

  • Member organizations: 114
  • LEED credential holders: 6,450
  • LEED Fellows: 4
Regulatory influences

The political landscape also influences the number of LEED certifications throughout the state, as well as other initiatives related to decarbonization and energy efficiency. The USGBC Policy Library is a tool that tracks state and local high-performance building policies. Throughout Colorado, there are at least 12 policies requiring and/or incentivizing the use of LEED as a third-party certification to support green building practices in new construction, major renovations and building operations.

The Colorado Energy Office has also enacted building performance standards and benchmarking reporting requirements to help the state reach its goal of reducing economy-wide GHG emissions 50% from 2005 levels by 2030.

Several local jurisdictions have taken their approaches to go beyond state requirements by developing their own sets of building performance standards to improve energy use and emissions reductions in existing buildings. Those with standards or benchmarking requirements, either in place or under development, include Aspen, Boulder, Denver, Fort Collins and Lakewood.

While LEED is not directly part of building performance standards, third-party verification and rating systems like LEED help provide accountability and transparency in meeting decarbonization goals.

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