Data Show Plaque Thresholds Push LEED Projects Higher

Daniel Matisoff, Douglas Noonan, and Anna Mazzolini, authors of “Performance or Marketing Benefits? The Case of LEED Certification,” published in January 2014 in Environmental Science & Technology, observe that a disproportionate percentage of projects achieve LEED points just above the minimum cutoff for LEED’s Silver, Gold, and Platinum certifications. The researchers argue that if project teams were only concerned with the cost-effectiveness of performance gains, the distribution of points would be smooth since, for example, the performance difference between 38 points for LEED Silver and 39 for Gold is not very significant.