Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)

I am wondering if someone who is familiar with the LEED program can give a bit of a summary as to how it works, including pros and cons of the system (without going into political stuff).

It looks to me like a points system where you get points for meeting certain criteria. The more the points, the higher your certification level.

This appears to be the homepage:

https://new.usgbc.org/leed