25 years ago the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) started with a vision: to transform the places where we live, work, learn and play within a generation. While builders and developers were starting to incorporate sustainable practices into the design and construction of their buildings, there was no consistent way to know if these buildings were truly green. We needed a common language and guidelines that all stakeholders in the building industry could use to explain what it meant to be “green.”
USGBC created the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building program as a way to measure and define what a green building is and to provide a roadmap for developing sustainable buildings. For the first time ever, LEED presented a holistic, simple, metrics-based system that helped transform the building sector and contributed to launching the trillion-dollar green building industry and spurring explosive growth in green buildings across the globe.
25 years ago there was no defined green building movement. Today, LEED has become the most widely used green building program in the world. It is the world’s rating system for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance green buildings. Now, people know that if they are in a LEED-certified building they are using less energy and water, avoiding waste, saving on maintenance costs, improving indoor air quality, offering comfort to their occupants, and creating less environmental burden on their community. They also know that they are in a building that enhances health and wellness.
For the last 18 years, the different versions of LEED have progressively pushed the global green building market forward, with more than 93,000 registered and certified projects and a total of over 19.78 billion square feet of space used worldwide. Every day, 2.2 million square feet of space certifies to LEED, and it is estimated that millions of people experience a LEED-certified building.
In a world that is constantly evolving, one of the hallmarks of LEED is “continuous improvement.” That is what drives LEED to evolve along with emerging technologies and the needs of the marketplace. The rating system is updated through a continuous improvement process and with each new version of the rating system we are challenging the built environment to be more resource efficient and sustainable. Through this continuous improvement process, we’ve been working to ensure that LEED not only meets different markets where they are, but also the rating system accelerates the speed at which the market moves. LEED is a leadership standard—an international symbol of excellence—and this evolution is how we aim to keep it that way.
After the widespread success of LEED 2009 we wanted to raise the bar on the market, so we introduced the newest and most progressive version of the rating system yet. LEED v4 is the most rigorous green building rating system in the world. From improving energy performance to emphasizing human health and integrative building design, LEED v4 is encouraging project teams to operate beyond the status quo. With LEED v4, we’ve ushered in substantial changes to make LEED more accessible to a wider ranger of building and space types so they can achieve higher levels of environmental sustainability, while also making LEED more accessible and valuable for projects outside of the United States.
LEED v4 in NYC
New York remains a leader of the green building movement. In 2017, New York ranked second on USGBC’s annual Top 10 States for LEED Campaign. States that rank on this list have the highest LEED-certified square feet per capita in a given year. In 2017, New York added 3.39 square feet of space per certified resident.
Much of this innovation comes from New York City—a steadfast leader in the green building movement—whose developers and designers were some of the earliest inspirations for and adopters of LEED certification.
New York City continues to lead the way by striving for a more sustainable, energy efficient, and equitable environment for its residents. This can be seen through goals like achieving an 80 percent reduction in citywide greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, compared to 2005 levels, and its participation in the Greener, Greater Building plan, which requires owners of buildings larger than 50,000 square feet to annually measure their energy consumer and green codes that require LEED Silver certification for most city-owned and funded buildings.
Its participation in LEED v4 also demonstrates the city’s leadership in sustainability. Some outstanding LEED v4 projects in New York City include: the Boston Consulting Group Office, 1155 Avenue of the Americas 11th Floor, 1133 Avenue of the Americas, and 485 Lexington Avenue.
The Future in NYC: LEED v4.1
The many examples of innovative and creative uses of LEED in New York City point to a bright future for green building leadership in New York City. Across the city, businesses, property owners, and policy makers are using LEED to meet their sustainability goals and improve quality of life for city residents. We are encouraged in our predictions on how the city will incorporate our evolving program and utilize our latest version of LEED.
With the U.S. Administration pulling back on promotion of energy efficiency and combating climate change, state and municipal governments, as well as leaders in the private sector, are stepping up with initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, expand activities that impact human health and wellbeing, and come up with effective solutions to life-threatening challenges around the U.S. and the globe.
And last month, we introduced our latest version: LEED v4.1—a series of upgrades that will improve our standards, encourage leadership, and make our platform more user friendly, more accessible—and most importantly—more collaborative than ever before. This is not a full version change, but rather an incremental update to the LEED rating systems. LEED v4.1 will be our most inclusive and transparent platform to date.
“LEED v4.1 will be our most inclusive and transparent platform to date,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO of USGBC and GBCI. “That’s because our most important requirement for adoption will come from our most valuable resource of all—the people, like the green building leaders in NYC, who have made LEED what it is!”
WHAT’S FIRST?
We’ll start with LEED for Existing Buildings and a beta rating system. The rating system is simplified—the scorecard and requirements are streamlined and new methodologies for tracking and rating performance are integrated directly into the rating system, providing a clear framework for achieving LEED certification, not just for entire buildings, but for spaces within buildings as well.
A stronger environmental performance leads to economic prosperity, better of quality of life, and improved human health and wellbeing for all. LEED v4.1 O+M will support this goal by tracking performance in energy, water, waste, transportation, indoor air quality, toxin-free environment, and occupant satisfaction.
With LEED v4.1 O+M, an initial certification will be awarded to projects based on the implementation of sustainable operational strategies and performance score achievement in LEED Online for the areas below:
- Transportation: Administer at least one survey
- Energy: Provide 12 consecutive months of total energy use
- Water: Provide 12 consecutive months of total potable water use
- Waste: Provide weight of waste generated and diverted over a 12-month period
- Indoor Air Quality: Conduct at least one indoor air quality evaluation for total volatile organic compounds and interior carbon dioxide (CO2) level
- Occupant Survey: Administer at least one occupant survey
The resulting points for performance will translate into a LEED certification level. The initial certification will be valid for one year. To keep the certification active, or to pursue higher levels of certification, projects should continue to report data against areas described above.
WHAT’S NEXT
Next we’ll move on to the rest of the LEED rating systems: new construction, residential, neighborhoods, and communities and cities. Requirements will be simplified for credits such as Low-Emitting Materials, Indoor Air Quality Assessment, and Rainwater and Heat Island Reduction. Credits that have been successfully implemented through the Pilot Credit Library will be considered for integration into LEED.
We will be updating performance thresholds to ensure LEED keeps pushing the market to connect buildings with their impact, with a particular focus on ways to measure the carbon footprint of a structure. In addition, the rating systems will be updated adequately to address the market needs of residential sectors, neighborhoods, communities, and cities.
HOW IT ALL GETS DONE
Even though LEED v4.1 is not a full version change, it does contain substantive changes.
The six steps below are an evolution of the traditional LEED development process that incorporates market input at the earliest stages to produce a rating system that honors one of LEED’s deepest core values—being a consensus-based rating system.
- Step One: Beta test a version of LEED v4.1 for the O+M rating system that will last several months. During this time, USGBC will also accept improvements and suggestions to enhance LEED v4.1 O+M.
- Step Two: USGBC will also accept proposals, improvements and suggestions for improving existing LEED v4 rating systems.
- Step Three: The LEED Steering Committee (LSC) along with the Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) will review the proposals along with other lessons learned and market feedback to release LEED v4.1 beta versions for BD&C, ID&C, Residential, Communities, Cities, and others. The LSC reviews and approves all proposal responses to ensure that they address all feedback received.
- Step Four: During the beta period USGBC will facilitate a series of webinars, meetings, and interactions with TAGs, staff, and other committees, to offer more collaboration opportunities to improve LEED v4.1. Once the beta versions of all rating systems are released to the market, USGBC will commence a public comment period for LEED v4.1.
- Step Five: After each public comment period, the feedback will be reviewed by LSC members and USGBC staff, followed by the release of any subsequent draft of LEED v4.1 and another opportunity for public comment in case of any significant changes made to the previous draft.
- Step Six: When ready, the final LEED v4.1 draft is put forward for USGBC Membership Vote and approval. Currently this is anticipated to take place in the first quarter of 2019.
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