The San Diego Foundation at Liberty Station in Point Loma has earned a coveted silver LEED rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The U.S. Green Building Council is a nationwide coalition of building industry leaders whose goal is to make buildings “environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work.”

The council has a membership of 8,400, including corporations, government agencies, nonprofits and others throughout the industry. Membership has increased tenfold since 2000, according to the USGBC.

The Council sponsors the LEED — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — green building rating system, considered to be the gold standard for earth-friendly development. Projects are evaluated for water and energy efficiency, atmosphere, materials and resources, among other features, and are awarded certified, silver, gold or platinum ratings, depending on the number of credits they achieve.

A few more USGBC tidbits:

• LEED projects are in all 50 U.S. states and 24 countries.

• Some 986 million square feet of commercial building space is registered or certified in the LEED program. Project types include new construction, existing buildings, commercial interiors, and core and shell — buildings where the owner doesn’t control the interior design. LEED certification for homes and neighborhood developments are now being studied.

• The annual U.S. market in green building products and services was more than $7 billion in 2005, and is expected to increase to $12 billion in 2007.

• San Diego-based projects or companies that have earned LEED ratings include the San Ysidro Department of Motor Vehicles Field Office, gold rating; Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development LLC, San Diego, drug discovery research facility, certified; TKG Consulting Engineers Inc., Oberlin Office, San Diego, gold; the San Diego Zoological Society’s Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Conservation Research, Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species, Escondido, silver; four buildings at Pfizer La Jolla’s campus, certified; the George L. Stevens Senior Center, San Diego, gold; the Sun Harbor Marina, San Diego, certified; Sempra Energy’s Yukon base facility, Hawthorne, silver, and its Murrieta facility, certified; Photon Research Associates Inc., San Diego, certified; Smart Corner mixed-use development, Smart Corner LLC, San Diego, silver; and the San Diego Foundation at Liberty Station, silver. More projects are in the pipeline.

— Pat Broderick