U.S. Green Building Council releases LEED v5 for public comment

The upcoming LEED green building rating system will prioritise ecological conservation and restoration, profound decarbonisation, and quality of life enhancements.

The foremost specialist on green building and the global developer of the LEED green building program, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), announces the launch of the first public comment period for its draft rating system, LEED v5. This phase symbolises a breakthrough for LEED and the building industry at large, providing an inclusive agenda for generating sustainable, efficient, and resilient built environments that endorse conservational responsibility, economic viability, and social equity.

“Buildings offer immediate opportunities for addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, equity, health, and so much more when they are designed, built, and operated with intent,” says Peter Templeton, President & CEO of USGBC. “This is the architecture behind LEED v5, which targets areas where accelerated progress is most needed while creating pathways that are accessible and applicable.”

Centred around three impact areas, all credits and prerequisites in LEED v5 drive improvement towards decarbonisation, quality of life, and/or ecological conservation and restoration.

• Decarbonisation: LEED v5 focuses on reductions of all significant sources of emissions: operational, embodied, refrigerants, and transportation.
• Quality of life: LEED v5 customs human-centric strategies to enhance health and wellbeing, flexibility, and equity, and inclusion for building occupants and their communities.
• Ecological conservation and restoration: LEED v5 emphasises strategies and actions that can be implemented at the individual asset level to limit environmental degradation and contribute towards the restoration of ecosystems.

LEED v5 emphasises influence, arrangement, and interconnectedness to support initial and ongoing sustainability efforts throughout a building’s lifecycle. Impact highlights include:

LEED v5 Operations + Maintenance puts existing buildings on a path to decarbonisation and ties Platinum-level certification to near-zero carbon operating emissions.

LEED v5 Building Design + Construction provides a framework for new buildings to reach near-zero carbon emissions operationally by 2050, on a decarbonised grid, and, at the Platinum level, for buildings to achieve near-zero carbon operationally and embodied carbon reductions today.

The project teams will be equipped with key information to guide goal setting and project delivery, including valuation practices for climate resilience, carbon emissions through 2050, and social equity for the first time. This information will help project teams set higher aspirations, pursue greater innovation, and achieve better outcomes.

LEED v5 users will provide a LEED Impact Report that will assist them to measure, manage, and communicate their project’s performance and enable them to make improvements over time.

From April 3 to May 20, 2024, LEED v5 for Building Design and Construction (BD+C), Interior Design and Construction (ID+C), and Operations and Maintenance (O+M) rating systems are all open for public comment. Public comment is a critically important step in the LEED development process, and feedback from all stakeholder groups is urged to provide input. 

In early 2025, the final versions of LEED v5 incorporating feedback received during the public comment period are scheduled to be released.  Projects will be able to register, as we continue the development of LEED v5 over the coming year, to use the current version of LEED and will be held to the requirements in place at the time of registration throughout their certification process.

The changes implemented through public comment will help ensure that LEED v5 drives transformative change while remaining reachable and appropriate to all project types and regions. With inputs from technical experts and industry stakeholders from around the world, LEED v5 will offer a comprehensive framework aimed at nurturing sustainable building practices that catalyse positive impact on a global scale.

For more info visit: https://www.usgbc.org/leed/v5

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