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53,341 LEED APs and Counting

Aug. 11, 2010
67 min read
During the past year, more than 13,300 design and construction professionals in the U.S. earned their green stripes by becoming accredited through the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Accredited Professionals program. As of late June, 53,341 AEC professionals have been accredited through the USGBC, up from about 40,000 last year, according to the Washington, D.C.-based organization.
Since 2004, BD+C has tracked the number of LEED APs within the nation’s largest AEC firms as part of its annual Giants 300 survey. Of the 363 firms surveyed this year, 95% report having at least one LEED AP on staff, and 72% say they have 10 or more LEED APs.

For the fourth year running, Perkins+Will takes the top spot on BD+C’s top 50 Building Team LEED APs ranking, with 775.

Seattle’s Mithun has the highest percentage of LEED APs on staff among the Giants 300, with 75.2% of the firm’s total staff accredited. Perkins+Will (55.2%), LPA (54.6%), FXFOWLE Architects (43.5%), and CUH2A (42.5%) round out the top five by percentage.

The LEED accreditation exam is expected to get tougher with the advent of the third major revision of LEED in 2009.
 —Lenora Jane Estes, Editorial Intern
          BD+C's Top 50 Building Team LEED APs   Firm LEED APs # Staff % LEED APs 1 Perkins+Will 775 1,404 55.2 2 Gensler 700 3,105 22.5 3 HOK 436 2,608 16.7 4 Turner Corp., The 425 5,881 7.2 5 Stantec 315 7,419 4.2 6 SmithGroup 251 810 31.0 7 Bovis Lend Lease 250 3,205 7.8 8 AECOM Technology Corp. 216 35,100 0.6 9 JE Dunn Construction Group 207 3,267 6.3 10 HDR Architecture 206 1,268 16.2 11 Jacobs Engineering Group 204 54,369 0.4 12 DPR Construction 200 540 37.0 13 CUH2A 196 461 42.5 14 HKS 193 1,238 15.6 15 Swinerton 175 1,300 13.5 16 Mithun 161 214 75.2 17 Arup 160 10,300 1.6 18 NBBJ 149 774 19.3 19 Gilbane Building Co. 141 2,180 6.5 20 DLR Group 140 608 23.0 20 Skanska USA Building 140 — — 22 Opus Group, The 139 1,881 7.4 23 Cannon Design 133 768 17.3 24 LPA 131 240 54.6 25 Callison 127 796 16.0 25 Leo A Daly 127 1,090 11.7 27 McCarthy Holdings 120 3,444 3.5 28 Skidmore, Owings & Merrill 117 1,417 8.3 29 URS Corp. 113 56,414 0.2 29 Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects 113 506 22.3 31 M. A. Mortenson 107 1,470 7.3 32 Structure Tone 105 1,650 6.4 33 Hammel, Green and Abrahamson 103 528 19.5 34 Hensel Phelps Construction 102 2,794 3.7 34 KlingStubbins 102 500 20.4 36 Burt Hill 101 1,070 9.4 37 Beck Group, The 100 590 16.9 37 Moseley Architects 100 254 39.4 37 Perkins Eastman 100 785 12.7 40 Webcor Builders 99 678 14.6 41 Affiliated Engineers 95 563 16.9 42 Flack + Kurtz 93 558 16.7 42 RTKL Associates 93 1,192 7.8 44 FXFOWLE Architects 87 200 43.5 45 Clark Group 86 — — 46 Einhorn Yaffee Prescott 80 300 26.7 47 OWP/P 78 315 24.8 48 Cooper Carry 77 311 24.8 49 Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates 76 273 27.8 50 Burns & McDonnell 75 2,701 2.8 50 Ellerbe Becket 75 384 19.5 50 Sundt Construction 75 830 9.0 50 Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., The 75 2,002 3.7                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

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