The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) created the LEED green building program in 2000, which certifies structures built and maintained under specific environmental criteria. Today, there are more than 55,000 projects, encompassing 10.2 billion square feet of space, participating in the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design program.
The hallmark of LEED is its continuous improvement cycle. As such, the USGBC is getting ready to launch some revised standards (called LEED v4) at the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in November. The technical update offers a new global perspective, an improved user experience and a focus on building performance.
The building industry now uses LEED on a wider variety of project types than ever before. LEED v4 addresses 21 different market sector adaptations to identify the unique needs of that market and appropriately address those needs. LEED v4 provides new solutions for:
• Existing schools
• Existing retail
• Data centers (new and existing)
• Warehouses and distribution centers (new and existing)
• Hospitality
• Midrise residential
With a focus on performance outcomes, LEED v4 is structured to help landlords have a better understanding of how to manage their buildings’ performance. The revised standards emphasize the potential for projects to contribute positively to their communities and to the planet. USGBC developed a set of system goals that serve as the driver for determining the performance outcomes of the rating system, repositioning LEED from encouraging buildings to do less bad and instead do more good.
Performance is addressed within each credit category in LEED:
Location and Transportation
For the first time in the building and construction category of LEED rating systems, location and transportation is called out as a separate category. Generally, this category is about improving project performance as it relates to allowing occupants to experience and benefit from the surrounding community infrastructure, context, and amenities.
Sustainable Sites
Sustainable sites emphasizes the vital relationships among projects, ecosystems, and ecosystem services. This category drives site performance by encouraging restorative environmental solutions (on- and off-site) that take advantage of ecosystem services and preserving habitat and biodiversity.
Water Efficiency
Expanded in scope, the water efficiency category addresses total water use in LEED buildings. Requirements encourage projects to seek improved efficiency in water operations most heavily used by the project, in addition to requiring building level water metering to ensure ongoing water efficiency.
Materials and Resources
The materials and resources section relies on a life-cycle thinking approach to building, product and material selection. This revised materials and resources credit category better defines the environmental priorities throughout LEED project and product development processes and offers organized, actionable credits around new concepts.
Indoor Environmental Quality
The credits in the indoor environmental quality credit category have been grouped into four areas: indoor air, light, sound, and experience. This category recognizes improved performance as it relates to human comfort and well-being, encouraging new strategies such as air testing and taking a systems approach to material selection to minimize volatile organic compounds in a space.
Today, LEED is used in more than 145 countries as the global standard for green building best practices. In the new rating system, project teams will find greater flexibility and recognition of regional context by allowing for regional and local equivalencies to typical referenced standards.
USGBC has also focused on simplifying the paperwork for project teams so they can focus on achieving credits rather than documenting them.
Chrissy Macken is an assistant project manager for LEED v 4 for U.S. Green Building Council.
