LEED

Just as the USDA certifies organic food, the US Green Building Council certifies green building construction. Logan Square Kitchen was registered with the US Green Building Council at the onset its design process in January 2008.

From the beginning, we set our sights on a LEED Gold rating. We are closing in on the completion of the certification process, which will probably take about two years when all is complete.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Given the wide variety of building projects and thousands of choices in each, LEED certification consist of a menu, or checklist, of green building elements. LSK accrues points as various design and construction credits are met. The basic LEED rating is ‘certified’, and rises to silver, gold and platinum, as the total number of sustainability credits increases.

LEED certification takes place in cyberspace-- we have a workroom in LEED online where we upload all drawings, engineering calculations and documentation. All submissions, notifications and rulings are provided to us in this virtual workplace. Here are the main steps in the LEED certification process, and when they unfolded for us:

Now that construction is complete and we've submitted our final credits for review, we anticipate a final certification by March 2010.  It will be a about 2.5 years since we registered our project with USGBC.  While the road is long, we are grateful for the credibility that an independent verifcation provides.  We always want to hold ourselves accountable to our friends, neighbors and patrons.