10,000 + green homes is nothing to sneeze at–especially when those homes are certified LEED, the internationally-recognized standard in green building. As of April 5th, the U.S. Green Building Council announced [PDF] that it had reached this landmark, signifying “the continued transformation of the home building industry[.]”

Since its launch in 2008 to the time when this story was written [by Susan DeFreitas], a total of 10,161 homes have achieved LEED certification, and over 38,000 additional units are currently lined up to do the same.

The 10,000th home to earn LEED certification was the Tacoma Housing Authority’s 91-unit development known as Salishan 7 in Washington. This is the first federally-funded HOPE VI Redevelopment project to achieve LEED Platinum; it was built within an affordable budget and designed to be at least 30% more energy efficient than the average home.

via LEED: 10,000+ Green Homes & Counting | EarthTechling.

At the heart of the 24-page complaint are claims by Gifford that the USGBC has deceived consumers and others by misrepresenting the benefits of LEED certification relating to energy efficiency and savings and attributes of the LEED rating system.Some of Gifford’s criticisms of LEED include that it:

• is not based on objective scientific criteria;
• is not based on actual building performance data but rather on projected energy use;
• does not require verification of data submitted in certification applications and does not require actual energy use data;
• is not based on actual measurements but rather computer modeling of anticipated energy use levels.

Other Gifford slams include that the USGBC does not have sufficient staff to evaluate applications for certification and that the USGBC has misrepresented to the public that LEED buildings perform 25-30 percent better than non-LEED buildings based on a USGBC initiated study by the New Buildings Institute (pdf) that Gifford claims is flawed.

Gifford claims that the marketplace, consumers, the environment and skilled professionals like himself with years of experience making safe, comfortable and energy-efficient environments are being harmed by LEED’s alleged misconduct.

corrected for punctuation and grammar via Federal lawsuit attacks LEED building rating system – AnnArbor.com.

“LEED has been very successful in the U.S. in transforming the approach to building design, construction and operation,” said Mario Zoccatelli, Presidente del GBC Italia. “After reviewing all of the existing green building tools out there, we ultimately chose LEED because of USGBC’s history of innovation and its flexible approach.”

via USGBC and GBC Italia Enter into Momentous International Green Building Agreement | Business Wire.

I first saw this home on Inhabitat, where Bridgette Meinhold wrires,

With the economy and new construction slow, Arbor South decided to use the down time to design a super efficient demonstration house. The Sage is a real life example, ready to be shown off to potential clients, modeling the firm’s abilities to build green. The modest 2-bedroom, 2-bath residence is only 1,447 square feet, but packs quite a punch in such a small space.

Arbor South has a video tour of the Sage; here’s the first part:

However, there are some buildings that go above and beyond even green conventions in order to meet Gold- or even Platinum-level LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) building certification standards. From a water facility with a 30,000-square-foot green roof to a nonprofit center with a 42-gallon water tank that stores rainwater for reuse, these eight award-winning architectural superstars are truly green trailblazers.

Gish Family Apartments in San Jose, California