Assessment of practice problems in energy performance of LEED certification system through an office building

Environmental problems and decreasing resources increase energy need of buildings gradually, hence voluntary certification systems that authenticate sustainability of buildings gain more and more importance. One of these systems is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which is used worldwide. In this paper, it is intended to examine how energy performance targets of LEED match up with its practice results. For this purpose, sustainability criteria are discussed, LEED's structure is explained and its energy performance criteria are analyzed. In the field study, an existing office building with LEED Platinum certificate is examined in terms of relevancy of its scoring with sustainability criteria and problems occurring in practice are stated onsite with observations and interviews with authorities. In the end of examination, reasons for problems are evaluated and necessities to improve energy performance of the practice are determined.