LEED, its efficacy in regional context: Finding a relationship between regional measurements and urban temperature

Abstract

Sustainable building performance has become one of critical concerns in recent architecture and urban planning disciplines. In this extent, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) has proven that the LEED badge provides a certain type of owner benefits. The question, though, is that it still is not very affirmative whether or not a LEED certified building also enhances environmental benefits to its surroundings. For example, if a LEED certification promises a standard for an environment-friendly building, then a group of these certificates should imply greater environmental benefits to the society. This is the main question of this study and the authors answer with the possible relationship of LEED certificates and their influence on outdoor temperature of surroundings. With the analysis results shown, both the LEED certification levels and the mass effect of LEED buildings do not have significant influence on regional climate. The result shows that the relationship of LEED clusters and their effects on regional heat has very minimal interactions and thus, we may possibly question the positive side of LEED's regional credits, such as Sustainable Sites or Heat Island Effect credit.