Rob Watson, sometimes referred to as the “father of LEED,” addresses LEED and impacts of green building in a recently released report: the Green Building Impact Report, 2008. The report explores LEED’s impact in the United States and highlights several environmental benefits resulting from both LEED homes and commercial buildings. Some of these include the following:

- Land Use. “We estimate that between efficient location and the myriad of alternative transportation options supported by LEED, nearly 400 million vehicle miles traveled have been avoided by the occupants of LEED buildings. This grows to more than 4 billion vehicle miles by 2020.”

- Materials and Resources. “LEED has helped spur an entire industry in green building materials. Certified projects to date have specified a total of more than $10 billion of green materials, which could grow to a cumulative amount exceeding $100 billion by 2020.”

With higher projections for the future, LEED appears to be lessening environmental degradation and moving the US towards a promising future in sustainable building.