Which U.S. states take the lead when it comes to LEED certified buildings? Well, as it turns out, it depends on how you calculate it. If you take the U.S. Green Building Council’s approach of measuring square feet (sf) of certified space versus people in the state–surprise, surprise–the District of Columbia takes top honors with 25 sf. per person in 2010, trailed by population-scarce Nevada.

But the Council has a rationale for taking this approach over simply counting the number of building projects.  ”Using per capita, versus the more traditional numbers of projects, or pure square footage,” said USGBC SVP of LEED, Scot Horst, in a statement [PDF],  ”Is a reminder to all of us that the people who live and work, learn and play in buildings should be what we care about most.”

image via U.S. Green Building Council

The top LEED states per capita, are the District of Columbia (25.15 sf), Nevada (10.92 sf) New Mexico (6.35 sf), New Hampshire (4.49 sf), Oregon (4.07 sf), South Carolina (3.19 sf), Washington (3.16 sf), Illinois (3.09 sf), Arkansas (2.9 sf), Colorado (2.85 sf), Minnesota (2.77 sf).

The full list of LEED certified projects nationwide is available online.