LEED Version Week 4 Research Report on Environmental Sustainability

LEED Version 4
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Development is a vital part of our modern world, with projects being developed on a daily basis. In this endeavor, the environment is caught in between because most projects utilize environmental resources both renewable and non-renewable. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has created LEED which is a green building rating system for new buildings design and construction projects to ensure that the environment is not degraded (Boeing, et al. 2014). To that end, this article examines indoor water use reduction, indoor under water and rainwater management credits outlined in LEED Version 4. This article will specifically look at how these three credits ensure environmental sustainability and how to test or document the intent of these credits.
LEED v4 is a more revolutionized and a specialized system that provides projects a platform to perform effectively by contributing to environmental sustainability. Environmental sustainability ensures that non-renewable resources are exploited at a rate that is equal to the rate of creation of the renewable ancillary (Herman and Townsend 1993). A project that is credit certified per LEED v4 guidelines contributes to environmental sustainability. It is because credits like renewable energy production, indoor water use reduction and rainwater management aim at maximizing opportunities towards economic and environmental improvement by implementing green designs and construction strategies that recognize environment as a vital factor in sustainable growth (Bryan 2014). In the case of indoor water use reduction credit, it ensures that water consumption is minimized and well utilized. By providing water efficiency use in buildings this credit intent at reducing the cost required by municipal to supply water and establish wastewater management systems. It, in turn, brings about environmental sustainability. For the case of renewable energy production credit, this system prevents air and water pollution and damage to public health and global warming emissions. This credit encourages the use of renewables in efforts to curb economic and environmental impacts of fossil energy. And lastly rainwater management contributes to environmental sustainability by ensuri...