The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council has released regional credits as part of LEED 2009. The credits encourage specific regional environmental priorities to be addressed when it comes to the design, construction and operations of buildings in different geographic locations. “Because environmental priorities differ among various regions of the country—the challenges in the Southeast differ from those in the Northeast, for example—regionally specific credits give LEED a way to directly respond to diverse, regionally grounded issues,” says Brendan Owens, vice president of technical development, USGBC. “The inclusion of these regional LEED credits is the council’s first step toward addressing regional environmental issues.” With the help of USGBC’s regional councils, chapters and affiliates, credits addressing six specific environmental issues within a region were identified from the existing LEED credits. Projects will be able to earn bonus points for implementing green-building strategies that address the important environmental issues facing their region. A project can be awarded as many as four extra points, one point each for achieving up to four of the six priority credits. To learn more about LEED 2009 and to download a region-by-region list of priority credits, visit www.usgbc.org/leed2009.