People on an individual basis, have come to recognize the importance of going green and by doing so have raised the standard of what is considered green in constructing buildings and homes. This is a good sign for all those concerned for the health of the environment and reducing green house gas emissions. In 2009 major changes in the official certification system for sustainable architecture are to take place. These revisions are designed to improve climate change.

Across the US and Europe, energy efficiency and cleaner air quality have become musts in architecture. The LEED or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is the US standard in green building, it was established by the US Green Building Council.

The US Green Building Council has recently published statistics stating that there are more than 2,400 LEED certified buildings to be followed by up to 14,000 more. This is good news for those interested in reducing emissions.

The current LEED system has a sort of point system and allots points to buildings based on the environmental quality improvements of the specific building. This system however has obvious flaws, and at times it does not appropriately judge the true environmental quality of a building. Much of this comes from the fact that the scale by which points are alloted is not very specific, thus both environmentally friendly structures and those which are not, could actually be given the same number.

It is this which has caused the USGBC to change the current LEED system and make it more sensitive to improvements which are specifically designed to increase energy efficiency, reduce emissions, and overall produce a more environmentally friendly building.

Regardless of this effort, there are still some critics who have emphasized the fact that they feel that the LEED system is merely a money generating system, as opposed to a system designed to promote a cleaner environment.

In any case, it is clear that going green is becoming the standard!