LEED has rating systems that cover the following types of construction:

• New Construction and Major Renovations (LEED-NC)
• Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI)
• Core & Shell (LEED-CS)
• Existing Buildings (LEED-EB)
• Homes
• Schools
• Healthcare
• Retail
• Neighborhood Development

 Each LEED rating system is divided into the following 5 environmental categories:

• Sustainable Sites (SS)
• Water Efficiency (WE)
• Energy and Atmosphere (EA)
• Materials and Resources (MR)
• Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)
• Innovation in Design (ID)

These categories are further subdivided into Prerequisites and Credits that cover a particular green measure that fits in the broad category. Prerequisites must be fulfilled in order for a building to achieve a LEED rating. Credits are associated with one or more points. Each Credit is identified by the letters that are abbreviations of the category it fits in and a number. For example, Sustainable Site Credit 3 is for Brownfield Redevelopment and is identified as SSc3 or SS3. Materials and Resources Credit 7 is for Certified Wood and is abbreviated MRc7 or MR7.

Regional bonus points are another feature of LEED and acknowledge the importance of local conditions in determining best environmental design and construction practices.

In the most recent version of LEED (LEED v2009), all LEED rating systems have 100 base points, and Innovation in Design and Regional Priority credits provide opportunities for up to 10 bonus points.

Certain LEED credits also provide the opportunity to earn exemplary performance points through performance that greatly exceeds the performance level or expands the scope required by the credit.

There are four different levels of achievement under LEED: from lowest to highest, Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum. These levels are attained by earning successively higher numbers of points (and, of course, by satisfying all prerequisites). The number of points you need to earn to achieve a given level varies according to the rating system, but Platinum is much more difficult to achieve than Certified.