As a LEED alternative, the Green Globes building rating system provides an assessment tool for characterizing a building's energy efficiency and environmental performance. The system also provides guidance for green building design, operation and management.

When compared to LEED, Green Globes' appeal may be enhanced by the flexibility and affordability the system may provide while simultaneously providing market recognition of a building’s environmental attributes through a recognized third-party verification.

Practically, and from a marketing perspective, it should not be a requirement to pursue LEED certification in order to demonstrate to tenants, their customers, clients and building visitors that a building's owners and management are taking steps to be more environmentally responsible.

According to a study by the University of Minnesota that compared LEED with Green Globes, the study found that the systems were very similar. LEED was more rigorous, rigid and quantitative whereas Green Globes was also rigorous, but more flexible and primarily focused on energy efficiency as a goal.

The Green Building Initiative ("GBI") oversees Green Globes in the United States. GBI is an accredited standards developer under the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and has begun the process to establish Green Globes as an official ANSI standard.

The ANSI process is a consensus-based process. It involves a balanced committee of users, producers, interested parties and NGOs who conduct a thorough technical review through an ANSI-approved, open and transparent process. The standard continues to be overseen by this committee and will continue to follow ANSI approved rules and procedures for updating the standard.

Interestingly, neither LEED nor Green Globes (or Energy Star for that matter) provide constant, longitudinal monitoring of energy efficiency or building performance. This means that building measurements and ratings are done on a one off basis and then must be re-verified later on. This is a major shortcoming of course, in terms of practicality of greening existing real estate, as buildings are dynamic and rarely perform the same from week to week.