Accepted Manuscript

Title: LEED, its Efficacy in Regional Context: Finding a

Relationship between Regional Measurements and Urban
Temperature

Author: Gu Donghwan Kim Hwan Yong Kim Hyoungsub

PII: S0378-7788(14)00912-8
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.10.066
Reference: ENB 5450

To appear in: ENB

Received date: 5-9-2014

Revised date: 24-10-2014
Accepted date: 26-10-2014

Please cite this article as: G. Donghwan, K.H. Yong, K. Hyoungsub,

LEED, its Efficacy in Regional Context: Finding a Relationship between
Regional Measurements and Urban Temperature, Energy and Buildings (2014),
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.10.066

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Title

LEED, its Efficacy in Regional Context: Finding a Relationship between Regional Measurements and Urban

Temperature

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Authors

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Donghwan, Gu (Corresponding author)

Master Student

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College of Architecture, Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning

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3137 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843

Email) hejong84@tamu.edu

Phone) 979.224.4067

Hwan Yong, Kim, Ph.D.

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Visiting Assistant Professor

College of Architecture, Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning

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3137 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843

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Email) hykim@arch.tamu.edu
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Hyoungsub, Kim
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Doctoral Student

College of Architecture, Department of Architecture

3137 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843

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Email) gudtjq81@tamu.edu

Abstract

Sustainable building performance has become one of critical concerns in recent architecture and urban planning

disciplines. In this extent, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) has proven that the

LEED badge provides a certain type of owner benefits. The question, though, is that it still is not very

affirmative whether or not a LEED certified building also enhances environmental benefits to its surroundings.

For example, if a LEED certification promises a standard for an environment-friendly building, then a group of

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these certificates should imply greater environmental benefits to the society. This is the main question of this

study and the authors answer with the possible relationship of LEED certificates and their influence on outdoor

temperature of surroundings. With the analysis results shown, both the LEED certification levels and the mass

effect of LEED buildings do not have significant influence on regional climate. The result shows that the

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relationship of LEED clusters and their effects on regional heat has very minimal interactions and thus, we may

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possibly question the positive side of LEEDs regional credits, such as Sustainable Sites or Heat Island Effect

credit.

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Keywords

LEED; Urban Heat Island Effect; Architectural Sustainability; Morans Index; LEED Certificate Systems

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1. Introduction

Sustainable building performance has become one of critical concerns in recent architecture and urban planning

disciplines. Because a building, including its construction and maintenance, intersects with various professional

fields, efficient and energy-effective performance largely drives the level of architectures sustainability. In this

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extent, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) has provided abundant resources and

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guidelines for a new project to become a sustainable anchor in the neighborhood. Paired with a range of

checklist, LEED has strong influence on the standards for a sustainable building, and it also has played an iconic

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role in energy-efficient architecture.

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Past studies articulated a LEED certificates effect on land price [1-4] or cost saving aspects [5-8]. In other

words, it has proven that the LEED badge provides a certain type of owner benefits. The question, though, is

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that it still is not very affirmative whether or not a LEED certified building also enhances environmental

benefits to its surroundings. For example, if a LEED certification promises a standard for an environment-
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friendly building, then a group of these certificates should imply greater environmental benefits to the society.

This is the main question of this study and the authors answer with the possible relationship of LEED
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certificates and their influence on outdoor temperature. If LEED is an effective tool to make the environment
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sustainable, then a group of LEEDs should indicate better sustainable performance compared to others.
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2. Literature Review
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LEED was announced by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to certify high-performance buildings and

sustainable neighborhoods [9]. Since the beginning, many scholars have studied on LEED certificates

effectiveness. For example, the New Buildings Institute showed that LEED buildings consume an average of 25-
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30% less energy than the national average. Especially, higher certification level of buildings, such as gold and

platinum use 45% less energy than non-LEED buildings [10]. Using the data from 100 LEED certificated

buildings, Newsham and Mancini [11] analyzed that LEED saves about 25-30% energy in comparison with its

conventional counterparts. In contrast, there are also some studies skeptical about the benefits that a LEED

certificate brings to energy saving aspect [12-16].

More studies are found under the energy efficiency domain. There are four levels of LEED certifications based

on a 100-point scale with an additional 10-bonus point. Ranging from the Certified with 40-49 points to

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Platinum with 80+ points, there are Silver classification with 50-59 points and Gold certificate with 60-79 points

[9]. LEED also consists of several topics: Sustainable Site (26 possible points), Water Efficiency (10 possible

points), Energy and Atmosphere (35 possible points), Materials and Resources (14 possible points), Indoor

Environmental Quality (15 possible points), Innovation in Design (6 possible points), and Regional Priority (4

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possible points) [17].

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Previous literature about post occupancy evaluation investigates the total energy use intensity (EUI) measuring

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the Energy & Atmosphere credit [10-15, 18]. Possible issues for these studies, however, can be summarized into

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two folds. First, although the Energy and Atmosphere credit accounts for 35% of the base points, it is just one

agenda of many LEED certifications and credits. The recent efforts to promote sustainable building standards

are inclined to emphasize the energy efficiency side of sustainability and thus, a thorough assessment on

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environment-friendly building has been often considered a less of importance [8, 19]. More comprehensive

evaluation of LEED buildings, such as Sustainable Site, Water Efficiency, and Indoor Environmental Quality
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should also be inclusive. Second, most of these studies clarify the benefits falling to the owners. If energy saving

is part of the greater environmental benefits, then LEED certification should bring a diverse aspect of
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sustainability to its interaction with the surroundings.

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Some studies elaborated the LEED buildings in a broader context. The expansion of high density built
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environment results in the change of heat balance, also known as the heat island effect [20]. The heat island
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effect originates from several factors such as, the urban canyons, material properties, the anthropogenic heat,

and the lack of evaporating surface with the increase of stored solar radiation [21]. Accordingly, energy

consumption of a building is directly affected by increased urban temperature [22, 23]. Precisely, material
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property of buildings such as, albedo and solar reflectance index (SRI) is correlated with the air temperature in

urban areas and plays a significant role in reducing the heat island effect [24, 25]. Although numerous

researchers have developed methodologies to improve building energy performance and earned solid results [19,

26, 27], buildings in urban environment consume more energy for air conditioning than suburban areas due to

the high temperature of the surroundings. This means that the consideration on the effort to reduce heat island

effect should be accompanied by subsequent research projects on energy efficient buildings.

To reduce heat island effect, the USGBC encourages building owners to utilize paving materials with SRI at

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least 29 for a minimum of 50 % of the site hardscape, including roads, sidewalks, courtyards, and parking lots.

Also, using low-sloped roofing with an SRI of at least 78 or steep-sloped roofing with an SRI of at least 29 for a

minimum of 75% of the roof surface are encouraged [17]. Sustainable Sites Credit 7.1: Heat Island Effect, the

23rd most commonly earned point, was applied to 62% of LEED projects. And, Sustainable Sites Credit 7.2:

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Heat Island Effect: the 31st most commonly earned point was applied to 53% of LEED projects [28]. Although

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50% of LEED projects achieved points in heat islands measures, their analysis between Sustainable Sites and its

impact on urban temperature is not clear enough yet. If the LEED aims for a sustainable building standard, then

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its broader context in terms of the environment should be accompanied.

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In this extent, the goal of this paper is to analyze the influence of LEED on urban temperature as one of

indicators for sustainable regional interactions. If a LEED certificate is regarded as a strong attribute for

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sustainable built environment, a group of these certificates should imply greater benefits to the society, and the

authors question if there is any possible relationship between large concentrations of LEED certified buildings
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and the temperature of their surroundings. As described, there certainly are credits geared toward to a broader

regional context. If these are truly effective measures, then the regional credits such as, Sustainable Site or Heat
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Island Effect will show higher degree of success in LEED certificate evaluation process.
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3. Methodology and Study Boundary

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To confirm whether the urban temperature changes by LEED buildings, this paper uses Morans Index (I) and
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correlation analysis. Morans I measures the spatial autocorrelation of geographic features based on locations

and number of clusters. The result presents whether the pattern of LEED buildings is spatially clustered,

dispersed, or random. It is essential to check the pattern of LEED buildings since urban heat island is mainly
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derived from the aggregation of buildings. Also, correlation analysis is useful to identify the connection between

temperature and the level of LEED clusters.

USGBC provides each LEED buildings address, certification level, certification date, and rating system. It has

47,946 building information in the U.S. as of January 2014. After data clearing process, 13,273 building data are

left. Table 1 shows the summary of LEED buildings built prior to the year 2012. As can be seen, the number of

LEED buildings has grown dramatically in the later years. Figure 1 shows the LEED distribution across the

states and most of the certifications concentrate on urban areas. The study boundaries of this study are the States

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of California, Texas, and Florida, and the main reason for choosing them is because they represent the LEED

buildings in the Sun Belt States. In other words, their annual temperature shows more consistency compared to

other states such as, New York or Illinois. Table 1 also shows the number of LEED buildings by their

certification levels. As mentioned briefly, there are four criteria of green buildings on the basis of 100 possible

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points.

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Table 1 Number of LEED buildings by year, states, and certification levels

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Year ~2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total

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No. 44 74 101 197 279 586 1,413 1,988 2,487 7,169

States CA TX NY FL IL PA MA WA Others Total

No. 1,091 448 360 323 296 291 268 267 3,825 7,169

Levels

No.
Certified
(40~49points)
1,287 (18%)
Silver
(50~59points)
2,533 (35%) an
Gold
(60~79points)
2,600 (36%)
Platinum
(80 and above)
749 (11%)
Total

7,169
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<Figure 1 LEED Building Distribution about here>
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Temperature dataset is another requirement to calculate the correlation coefficient between the level of LEED

cluster and its annual temperature. The Daymet data supported by the National Aeronautics and Space
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Administration (NASA) Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS), and the Terrestrial Ecosystem
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Program provides 1km by 1km gridded estimates of daily weather parameters for North America from 1980 to

2012 [29]. It offers 7 different types of information: daily minimum and maximum temperature; precipitation

occurrence and amount; humidity level; shortwave radiation; snow water equivalent; and day length. In this
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study, daily maximum temperature on January 1st, April 1st, July 1st, and October 1st in 2012 are used for

temperature data point as they represent possible seasonal transitions. Table 2 summarizes the temperature

changes in the study area. Well known for its natural assets, the three states have a larger number of distinct

climate zones such as, desert, grasslands, mountains, inland, and coaster areas. Accordingly, the mean

temperature in the summer season for the three states show higher figure compared to the national average.

Therefore, if LEED buildings have temperature mitigation effect, especially in the summer, then it is more

advantageous in the study area to make greater environmental benefits.

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 Table 2 - Summary of Temperature for the Study Areas ()

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California Texas Florida
Jan 1 Apr 1 Jul 1 Oct 1 Jan 1 Apr 1 Jul 1 Oct 1 Jan 1 Apr 1 Jul 1 Oct 1

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Min -11 -9.5 1.5 -4 8.5 18 25.5 17 22 24.5 30 25
Max 30.5 33.5 44.5 44.5 27.5 37 42.5 36.5 27.5 31.5 36.5 33
Mean 16.6 15.1 29.2 33.3 22.1 31.6 34.7 25.9 24.9 28.6 33.6 31.1

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Std dev. 5.3 7.5 6.8 5.4 3.1 2.1 2.2 2.5 1.3 1.7 1.0 1.4

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4. Analysis and Result

Table 3 lists the result from Global Morans I analysis. Morans I is to test whether LEED buildings are
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randomly distributed across the states. If we can reject the null hypothesis with the statistical significance, then

we could argue that LEED buildings have tendency to cluster or disperse across the study boundary. The p-value
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shows a statistically significant level with a 99% confidence except for the State of Florida, and z-scores

resulted in positive values. Thus, the States of California and Texas are able confirm that the patterns of the
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LEED buildings are spatially clustered. The State of Florida, on the other hand, could be marginally accepted for
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its spatial clustering effect in LEED buildings with an 80% confidence level. This is an interesting result and

partially expected because the metropolitan areas have more possibility to construct LEED certified buildings
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and the rural areas are less likely to have the same opportunities. Nevertheless, Morans I results confirmed this

clustered pattern of LEED in the study boundary. Then the next questions become where clustering happens and
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what are their possible connections to annual temperature.

Table 3 Summary of Global Morans I Analysis by Three States

California Texas Florida

Morans Index 0.003 0.005 0.001
z-score 12.367 9.505 1.255
p-value 0.000 0.000 0.209

To answer these two questions, a correlation between daily maximum temperatures and the number of LEED

Page 7 of 14
buildings by the LEED certification level is calculated first, and table 4 summarizes the coefficient results.

Considering the conventionally accepted coefficients, above 0.3, the results show relatively low correlation

results. The influence of temperature change among the certification levels is indistinct across the three states.

Thus, it could be noted that the maximum temperature does not vary significantly based on certification levels.

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Table 4 - Summary of Correlation by the Level of LEED Certification

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California Texas Florida
Certification Level
Jan Apr Jul Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct

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Certified, Silver,
0.01 -0.02 -0.06 -0.03 -0.08 -0.04 0.05 0.02 -0.03 -0.01 0.01 -0.01
Gold, Platinum
Silver, Gold,
0.01 -0.02 -0.05 -0.02 -0.12 -0.06 0.07 0.02 -0.02 0.01 0.00 -0.05
Platinum

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Gold, Platinum 0.01 -0.02 -0.04 -0.02 -0.11 -0.06 0.06 0.02 -0.02 -0.01 0.02 -0.06
Platinum 0.02 -0.01 -0.01 0.00 -0.04 -0.02 0.01 -0.01 -0.01 0.02 0.03 0.01

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The primary purpose of correlation analysis is to find the temperature change caused by possible regional credits

in LEED certificate system. However, table 4 showed there is no significant difference between the levels of

certification. Then, how about LEED concentrated areas? Will they show the same level of insignificance? Or
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will they imply a different relationship with the annual temperature? To define the clusters, the authors select the

census tracts with statistically significant (HH census tracts) areas in the Anselin Moran's I analysis result.
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Anselin Morans I analysis defines clusters at a local level, whereas the Global Morans I analysis produces a
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single statistics to summarize the entire study area. A unit with high positive z-score suggests that the

surrounding units have similar values. Thus, statistically significant values in Anselin Morans I analysis are
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selected to define LEED concentrated areas.

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Another dimension on concentration is also added. High concentrated census tracts in Los Angeles, San Diego,
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and San Francisco counties in California; Dallas, and Harris counties in Texas; and Miami-Dade, Palm Beach,

and Sarasota counties in Florida were selected to run the differences between the urban and rural areas. Those

counties are selected based on the number of LEED buildings in each county to represent an urbanized

environment with LEED buildings. Top three counties in each state are designated while the State of Texas has

only two counties and those two contain more than 71% of LEED buildings. Table 5 illustrates the number of

LEED buildings by the level of LEED certification, and the level of concentration in the selected counties. The

concentration of LEED buildings in HH area shows a tendency to increase in the selected counties, rather than

the whole state areas. Texas HH area has about 83% of LEED certificates and 100% of LEED buildings are

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located in the selected counties. Similarly, the State of Florida has 46% and 72%, and California has 43% and

45% respectively.

Table 5 - Summary of the number of LEED buildings and classifications

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No. of LEED Buildings California Texas Florida

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Total 1,091 100% 448 100% 323 100%
in Certified level 207 19% 128 29% 82 25%
in Silver level 311 29% 152 34% 107 33%

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in Gold level 419 38% 136 30% 116 36%
in Platinum level 154 14% 32 7% 18 6%
Total 1,091 100% 448 100% 323 100%

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in HH census tracts 472 43% 372 83% 147 46%
in Non-HH census tracts 619 57% 76 17% 176 54%
Total in selected counties 461 100% 317 100% 112 100%
in HH census tracts 206 45% 317 100% 81 72%

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in Non-HH census tracts 255 55% 0 0% 31 28%

The negative coefficient means that the LEED cluster is associated with lower urban temperature, implying that
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the LEED concentrations may have reduced their surroundings temperature. As seen in table 6, the coefficient

for the general census tracts in the State of California shows negative correlations, ranging from -0.11 to -0.17.
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However, the correlation result in the high concentrated areas illustrates higher values of negative correlation,
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meaning that the LEED concentrated areas have relatively lower urban temperature than other regions. Unlike

California, the State of Texas and Florida show weak correlation results, indicating that the LEED focused areas
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may not have significant influence on the temperature. Despite the fact that the three states present slightly
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different results, by looking at the variances in coefficients, it can still be said that the temperature change is

more distinct when the LEED certificates are clustered.

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Table 6 - Summary of correlation by the target areas

California Texas Florida

Target Areas
Jan Apr Jul Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct Jan Apr Jul Oct
All census tracts -0.13 -0.14 -0.17 -0.11 -0.08 -0.12 -0.06 0.02 0.09 0.03 -0.09 -0.02
Census tracts in
the selected -0.24 -0.22 -0.20 -0.17 -0.05 0.06 0.05 0.08 -0.07 -0.21 -0.01 0.13
counties

5. Conclusion

With the analysis results shown above, it seems that both the LEED certification levels and the mass effect of

LEED buildings do not have significant influence on regional climate. The result shows that the relationship of

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LEED clusters and their effects on regional heat has minimal interactions and thus, we may possibly question

the effectiveness of LEEDs regional credit process, such as Sustainable Sites or Heat Island Effect credit. It

should be noted that, however, the State of California resulted in an interesting output as it showed higher

negative coefficients for the LEED concentration areas, and all the coefficients showed negative correlation with

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the regional climate. The degrees of coefficients for the States of Texas and Florida resulted in less predictable

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outcome, but the coefficient differences between the normal areas and LEED concentrated areas in Texas, and

the negative correlation between regional temperature and LEED building areas in Florida are noteworthy

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findings.

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One thing should be regarded that correlation is one of many ways to diagnose possible relationship and it does

not indicate causation. Also, measuring correlation coefficient provides a possible foundation to the research

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questions, but it does not give an affirmative answer about whether or not the relationship is reliable. In other

words, just calculating correlation coefficient does not assure that a group of LEED certificates does not have
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any influence on the greater environmental benefits, the degree of urban heat in this case, nor does it prove

whether the LEED certificates do have positive influences. Finally, capturing the heat of the first day of four
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months as a proxy for the annual temperature may have simplified the weather variation and thus, more
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thorough measurements should be taken into account for the future research works.
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Nonetheless, the main point of this paper addresses a meaningful attempt that could imply possible directions
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for future research. As mentioned earlier, the main purpose of this paper is to address the LEED certificate and

credit systems effectiveness in terms of its broader environment. We have enough studies about owner benefits

of LEED buildings, such as cost savings and energy savings. But not many have been directed under the domain
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of benefits to users. In this extent, the authors think the analysis in this study indicates a possible development

direction for both USGBC and other proponents of the LEED certification system. If the LEED could become a

more interactive measurement with its regional context, which is indeed a required perspective in a broader

context of sustainability, it would become a true sustainable building standard as it actively considers

architecture a semi-public asset. Also, LEED will become a more comprehensible measurement due to the fact

that it enhances the relationship of urban environmental problems with the architectural performance.

Page 10 of 14
6. References

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[2] Fuerst, F. and P. McAllister, Green noise or green value? Measuring the effects of environmental

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certification on office values. Real Estate Economics, 2011. 39(1): p. 45-69.

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Singh, A., et al., Costs and benefits of IEQ improvements in LEED office buildings. Journal of
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approach. Building and Environment, 2011. 46(5): p. 1081-1086.

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buildings. 2008: New Buildings Institute Vancouver, WA.

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Energy Program Evaluation Conference. 2009. Oberlin, OH: International Energy Program Evaluation

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[17] USGBC, LEED 2009 for new construction and major renovations. 2010, Sacramento, CA: USGBC.

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Buildings. Energy and Buildings, 2014. 85: p. 86-97.

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[19] Heravi, G. and M. Qaemi, Energy performance of buildings: The evaluation of design and construction

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measures concerning building energy efficiency in Iran. Energy and Buildings, 2014. 75: p. 456-464.

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Built Environment, M. Santamouris, Editor. 2013, Routledge: London, UK. p. 3-18.

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fight heat island and improve comfort in urban environments. Solar Energy, 2014. 103: p. 682-703.

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Planning, and Management of Urban Forests. 2008, Springer: NY, New York. p. 84-96.
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85(12): p. 3085-3102.
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[26] Machairas, V., A. Tsangrassoulis, and K. Axarli, Algorithms for optimization of building design: A

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Buildings, 2013. 62: p. 403-413.

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Highlights

- The paper discovered a regional relationship between LEED buildings and the annual temperature of

their surroundings.

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- The study analyzed the level of LEED certificates and their connection to regional temperature.

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- The result indicate that the regional credits in LEED certificate system do not have significant effect on

reducing the urban heat.

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- The study initiated all possible LEED buildings in the U.S., but concluded with the State of California,

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Texas, and Florida.

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Figure(s)

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