The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the leading authority on green building and the global developer of the LEED green building program, has announced the 16 local governments that will participate in the 2025 LEED for Cities Certification Cohort. The program supports efforts from local governments across the country to maximize efficiency, resilience, health and quality of life for residents.

USGBC helps cohort participants build plans and capacity to achieve sustainability goals, including LEED for Cities certification. Through their participation, local governments set goals, collect data and validate performance against standardized sustainability and quality of life metrics in the LEED for Cities rating system.

“City governments play a critical role in advancing public and environmental health, resilience and economic prosperity across their communities,” said Peter Templeton, president and CEO, USGBC.“We applaud this cohort for prioritizing these outcomes and committing to meaningful actions on sustainability and community wellbeing. The LEED for Cities framework helps local governments track performance, identify opportunities for improvement and implement best practices—delivering near-term benefits and lasting positive impact.”

The annual cohort is a component of USGBC’s Local Government Leadership Program. The program is made possible through a partnership with Bank of America and has provided direct support to nearly 120 U.S. local governments representing 55 million people. The program aims to equip local leaders with the tools they need to be successful in advancing green building and sustainable development practices in their communities and accelerate progress on sustainability and climate action in cities, towns and counties across the United States.

The 2025 cohort represents a combined population of more than 14 million people. Participating local governments include:

• Ashland, Mass.
• Aurora, Ill.
• Brighton, Colo.
• Cook County, Ill.
• Delray Beach, Fla.
• Farmers Branch, Texas
• Harris County, Texas
• King County, Wash.
• Lafayette, Ind.
• Lincoln, Neb.
• Mercer Island, Wash.
• Milwaukee, Wis.
• Pittsburgh, Pa.
• Riverside, Calif.
• Sun Prairie, Wis.
• West Lafayette, Ind.

Since the program’s inception in 2017, resilience and sustainability have become increasingly important factors in every community’s success. Using the LEED for Cities rating system, local governments demonstrate their performance in resilience planning, energy efficiency, green spaces, mobility management, public health, responsible procurement, stormwater management and green building policy.

In addition to the national certification cohort, the Local Government Leadership Program includes regional leadership summits to deepen engagement with local governments and facilitate sharing of best practices on green building and sustainable development. The program has also established LEED for Cities Accelerators to assist local governments new to LEED for Cities with collecting data, benchmarking sustainability performance and navigating the certification program. Learn more about the Local Government Leadership Program here.

Bank of America is a longtime partner and a member of USGBC. Since 2011, it has provided over $4.55 million in total grant funding to USGBC. Bank of America has also integrated sustainability into its building design standards since 2005 and used those standards to deliver workspaces that have achieved green building certification for its global footprint. Currently, it has more than 21 million square feet of certified green building space and aims to achieve certification for 40% of its building space by 2030.

For more information, visit the LEED for Cities page.