The LEED for Homes Scoring Tool is a web-based application that offers anyone an easy way for anyone to explore the LEED for Homes green home building program. By easily and simply breaking the LEED for Homes rating system down into either a Quick Score path and a deeper dive Credit by Credit path, all project team members can better understand which green features they want to incorporate into a new green home.
"The LEED for Homes Scoring Tool will help fill in the gaps for home builders and home owners alike," said Nate Kredich, Vice President of Residential Market Development, U.S. Green Building Council. "It is one of the simplest tools on the market for green home building that anyone can use; the credit by credit path encompasses the entire LEED for Homes program, showing you that you may be closer to achieving LEED certification than you think."
The Quick Score path is intended for people new to green building and allows users to explore LEED and answer very general questions about green building. The Quick Score path provides an approximate certification level and a list of things that would be required in order to be in the ballpark for certification. Users have the option of proceeding to the Credit by Credit path in order to fine tune their score and learn detailed information about the LEED for Homes rating system requirements.
The Credit by Credit path is a walk-through of the rating system with a built-in checklist in which people can read the credit requirements and indicate their intentions for that specific credit. It calculates the points for each LEED credit category, checks to make sure that all the pre-requisites are checked off and ensures that the minimum point floors are attained.
The Scoring Tool is also useful as a project management tool for project teams working on multiple projects or looking to see how different iterations of the same project fare in the LEED for Homes rating system.