LEED-EB V4-Certified Projects and the Built Environment in the U.S.A.

This study evaluated the impact of the built environment (i.e., walkability, transit access, and bikeability) on the location and transportation or “alternative transportation” credit (LTc1) in the certification of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings version 4 (LEED-EB v4) Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Certified office buildings in the U.S.A. Spearman’s test was used to estimate the correlation between the built environment and LTc1 scores for each certification level. The Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test was used to perform a pairwise comparison between the LEED-certified groups. The Platinum, Gold, and Silver certification levels showed significant positive correlations between the built environment and the LTc1 scores (0.44 ≤ r ≤ 0.74, p ≤ 0.0312). In contrast, the Certified certification level showed non-significant correlations (0.18 ≤ r ≤ 0.33, p ≥ 0.0579). A pairwise comparison showed that the Platinum and Gold groups outperformed the Certified group in the built environment and LTc1 scores (p ≤ 0.0099). Consequently, for LEED-EB v4 projects located in downtown areas, the LTc1 can be considered a significant lever to achieve higher levels of LEED certification.