The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the Top 10 States for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), an annual ranking that highlights states throughout the United States that made significant strides in sustainable building design, construction and transformation over the past year. Topping the list is Massachusetts, which moved from third to first place with a total of 136 LEED certified projects representing 3.73 square feet of certified space per resident.

“The green building movement continues to evolve with advancements in technology, benchmarking and transparency, and the states on this list are leading the way toward a more sustainable future,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO of USGBC.

Now in its seventh year, the ranking assesses the total square feet of LEED-certified space per resident based on U.S. Census data and includes commercial and institutional green building projects certified during 2016. Illinois and Colorado are the only two states to have made the list every year since 2010, and New York has returned to the rankings after a one-year hiatus.

This year's list has the highest average (2.55) per capita LEED certified space among the top 10 states since 2010. Four of the nine states included in the 2015 list increased the square feet of space they certified per resident in 2016 (Massachusetts, Colorado, California and Virginia).

Collectively, 1,819 commercial and institutional projects achieved LEED certification in the 10 states within the Top 10 LEED list in 2016, representing 309.12 million gross square feet of real estate. And across the U.S., 3,366 projects were LEED certified in 2016, representing 470.39 million square feet.

More than 59,000 commercial, neighborhood and residential projects are currently LEED certified, comprising more than six billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states in the U.S. and in more than 164 countries and territories globally.

For more information on the list, and to check out a run down of the top ten, visit USGBC’s website.