Illinois tops USGBC list of states with the most LEED certified projects in 2021
By Peter Fabris, Contributing Editor
Illinois again topped the U.S. Green Building Council’s annual list of LEED-certified building projects in the U.S.
Illinois certified 3.16 sf of building space per person under LEED in 2021. Perennial sustainability leaders Washington, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Virginia rounded out the top five, with Utah appearing in the top 10 for the first time since 2015.
The top 10 states, plus the District of Columbia, certified 1,105 projects and more than 247 million gross sf under LEED in 2021. Washington, D.C., is not included in the official top 10 list because of its status as a federal territory, but it consistently leads the nation in LEED-certified square footage per capita. In 2021, D.C. certified 29.46 sf of space per resident across 103 green building projects.
The rankings were based on data that includes commercial and institutional green building projects certified to LEED between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2021.