The Green Building Council Italia has become the first organization in the European Union to implement the LEED green building rating system.

The U.S. Green Building Council and GBC Italia signed a memorandum of understanding to make the partnership between the two organizations official last week.

The Italian group's version of LEED will reference local standards and codes and other building and design aspects specific to the country will be incorporated in its rating system.

The USGBC said agreement with GBC Italia follows an idea first broached during World Green Building Day last fall. The Italian organization is an emerging member of the World Green Building Council.

{related_content}International collaboration among green building advocates was a key theme of Greenbuild 2009, where representatives of member nations in the World Green Building Council convened.

“LEED has been very successful in the U.S. in transforming the approach to building design, construction and operation,” said Mario Zoccatelli, president GBC Italia, in a prepared statement.  “After reviewing all of the existing green building tools out there, we ultimately chose LEED because of USGBC’s history of innovation and its flexible approach.”

Earlier this spring, the USGBC and the China's Green Building Council signed a memorandum of understanding.

As in the USGBC's pact with its Italian counterpart, the MOU with China broadly lays out the organizations' plans to collaborate in fostering green building and carbon emissions reductions in the building sector. The groups also agreed to support each other's green building conferences and joint research and education in areas of mutual interest.

Image CC licensed by Fickr user davekellam.