Portland, OR- City Commissioner Dan Saltzman announced the final approval of a Portland Green Building standard by the U S Green Building Council (USGBC). It is the first local version of the USGBC's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system approved by the USGBC. Portland LEED, as the local system will be called, tailors the national standard to local building and development requirements while maintaining third party verification and official certification by the USGBC.

The Portland metropolitan area leads the country in implementing green building approaches. To date, two local projects have been LEED certified by USGBC, Viridian Place in Lake Oswego (Certified level) and Ecotrust Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center (Gold level). These two buildings are among only seven that are certified under version 2.0 of LEED nationally. Twenty-five other projects are registered for future certification in the Portland metro area-more than any other urban center in North America. Nationally, 407 projects are registered with LEED.

City Government will be contributing significantly to the local accumulation of official green buildings in future facilities. Both the City and the Portland Development Commission adopted green building policies introduced by Commissioner Saltzman in 2001 that require facilities built or financed by the City meet or exceed the Portland LEED Certified level. New community centers, firehouses, or PDC commercial development projects will now be built to the Portland LEED standard.

The City's Office of Sustainable Development spearheaded the 18-month effort to develop Portland LEED. Key stakeholders in Portland LEED, City staff from the Portland Development Commission and the Bureaus of General Services, Environmental Services, Transportation, Parks and Planning collaborated on identifying and developing the local elements to be added to the local standard.

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• City of Portland