The Top 10 States showcases the expansion of green buildings across the U.S. as states prioritized sustainable, healthy buildings. Read the press release.
Explore the projects in each state
The increase in the adoption of LEED in the U.S. highlights the remarkable progress of the public and private sectors toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions, health impacts, and operating costs in buildings across their states. View the LEED projects that contributed to their state's achievement by clicking the state name in the grid below.
Showcasing the expansion of green building across the U.S.
USGBC offers the LEED rating system and other industry-shaping resources to aid in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in new and existing buildings. LEED is the world’s most widely used green building program, created by USGBC as a leadership standard defining best practices for healthy, high-performing green buildings.
A new record was set in 2023 for adding the most LEED-certified gross square footage (GSF) of green building space in a single year as the world saw alarming climate impacts including record-setting temperatures and storms of increasing intensity. In total, there were more than 6,000 LEED-certified commercial projects worldwide, representing 1.36 billion GSF.
* The list of states in the U.S. with certified GSF per capita includes commercial projects certified in 2023. To calculate the rankings, the commercial square footage certified in 2023 is divided by the state population, based on the 2020 U.S. census records. Washington, D.C., is not included in the rankings as it is a federal district.
Top 10 States for LEED in 2023 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | State | Per capita square footage |
Project count |
Total gross area (sq ft) |
| 1 | NY | 4.63 | 201 | 93,548,624 |
| 2 | IL | 3.21 | 101 | 41,174,946 |
| 3 | MA | 3.21 | 105 | 22,538,269 |
| 4 | WA | 3.01 | 91 | 23,175,770 |
| 5 | GA | 2.56 | 97 | 27,473,703 |
| 6 | VA | 2.43 | 90 | 20,969,235 |
| 7 | CA | 2.27 | 402 | 89,774,704 |
| 8 | CO | 1.95 | 62 | 11,246,113 |
| 9 | HI | 1.79 | 10 | 2,609,493 |
| 10 | MD | 1.77 | 62 | 10,946,153 |
| * | DC | 43.04 | 126 | 29,677,573 |
Transforming the building sector
USGBC is committed to supporting and building the green workforce. The green building industry must ramp up capacity to meet our ambitious goals for emissions reductions and resilience. This requires equipping current building industry professionals with new skills and know-how, and attracting and training future workers to design, build and operate buildings that are smart, modern, healthy and efficient.
USGBC's efforts to cultivate and support green building professionals include its credentialing programs, which denote proficiency in today’s sustainable design, construction and operations standards.
Top 10 States for LEED professionals |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Population | Total credentials | ||
| CA | 39,538,223 | 27,178 | ||
| NY | 20,201,249 | 12,664 | ||
| TX | 29,145,505 | 10,851 | ||
| FL | 21,538,187 | 10,100 | ||
| IL | 12,812,508 | 8,556 | ||
| MA | 7,029,917 | 7,182 | ||
| VA | 8,631,393 | 6,833 | ||
| CO | 5,773,714 | 6,676 | ||
| WA | 7,705,281 | 6,313 | ||
| PA | 13,002,700 | 6,003 | ||
Additional sustainability achievements
This year, we're also ranking the impact of other rating systems including the top five states for TRUE for zero waste and SITES for sustainable landscapes. Scroll through the tables to see what states took the lead.
Top 5 States for TRUE for zero waste
- California
- Texas
- Ohio
- New Jersey
- Arizona
California
Texas
Ohio
New Jersey
ArizonaTop 5 States for SITES for sustainable landscape
- Oregon
- Montana
- Idaho
- Georgia
- Michigan
Oregon Montana Idaho Georgia MichiganCelebrate your state
Join us in celebrating this leadership—use the #Top10LEED hashtag to share your state’s ranking with your neighbors and colleagues on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Access the toolkit
Use sample social media posts and newsletter content to promote your state and your 2023 LEED projects. Download.
Take a look back
Now in its fourteenth year, the annual list is based on the gross square footage of LEED-certified space per capita added in each state over the past year, using U.S. Census data. Take a look at the Top 10 States for each year since 2010.
2022 / 2021 / 2020 / 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010