The USGBC has released the 2010 list of top 10 states for LEED-certified commercial and institutional green buildings. The District of Columbia comes out on top nationally, with 25 square feet of LEED-certified space per person.

“Using per capita, versus the more traditional numbers of projects, or pure square footage, is a reminder to all of us that the people who live and work, learn and play in buildings should be what we care about most,” says USGBC SVP of LEED, Scot Horst. “2010 was a difficult year for most of the building industry, but in many areas, the hunger for sustainable development kept the markets moving.”

The top 10 LEED states per capita, including District of Columbia:

District of Columbia: 25.15 sf

Nevada: 10.92 sf

New Mexico: 6.35 sf

New Hampshire: 4.49 sf

Oregon: 4.07 sf

South Carolina: 3.19 sf

Washington: 3.16 sf

Illinois: 3.09 sf

Arkansas: 2.9 sf

Colorado: 2.85 sf

Minnesota: 2.77 sf

The USGBC LEED green building certification system currently has over 40,000 projects participating in commercial and institutional LEED rating systems, with 7.9 billion square feet of construction space in the 50 states and 117 countries.

LEED has been “hitting home” as well, with over 45,000 homes certified under the LEED for Homes rating system.

The most common type of project on the top 10 LEED list was the commercial office, and the most common owner type a for-profit organization.

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