The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced a call for proposals to solicit feedback and concepts for the next version of LEED. Comments and feedback are being accepted at usgbc.org/leed. Based on feedback, USGBC will host a session at Greenbuild in November to provide updates to the program.
USGBC created the LEED green building program to measure and define green building and to provide a roadmap for developing sustainable buildings.
In April 2019, USGBC officially released the complete suite of LEED v4.1 rating systems. LEED is updated through a continuous improvement process and with each new version USGBC is evolving LEED’s approach and challenging the building sector to be more resource efficient and sustainable.
“To meet the changing demands of the market and capitalize on new best practices, technologies and building types, LEED continually evolves and adapts,” says Melissa Baker, senior vice president of LEED at USGBC. “This commitment to continuous improvement has been a hallmark of LEED since it launched in 2000, and ensures that LEED maintains its position as a symbol of leadership, pushing the market forward and setting the bar for sustainability in the built environment.”
LEED v4.1 is Agile and Adaptable
LEED v4.1 emphasizes the human experience and pushes project teams to create spaces that not only reduce carbon emissions, energy, water use and waste, but also improve the health and well-being of the people who live, work, learn and play in these buildings, cities and communities every day.
“With LEED v4.1 we have fundamentally transformed our rating system development process,” says Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO of USGBC. “It has allowed us to become more agile and adaptable to incorporate real-time feedback so that we can realistically raise the bar on the marketplace.”
USGBC received an “overwhelming” response to the LEED v4.1 call for proposals, helping them deliver on the market needs. “Building on this success, we are excited to engage the market again to solicit ideas, proposals and feedback for improving LEED v4.1 and future versions of LEED,” Ramanujam says.
Cities around the world are mitigating climate risks by pledging to raise the bar to reduce carbon emissions. Manufacturers, architects and designers are all taking into consideration the best ways to reduce waste and prevent harmful atmospheric emissions.
[Related: How Much Embodied Carbon Is In Your Building?]
A variety of green and healthy building standards are increasingly in demand to support the day-to-day needs of everyone and raise their living standard.
LEED’s trajectory will support these market changes by continuing to improve the performance throughout the lifecycle of buildings, advance net zero and net positive practices, and reward leaders based on their performance to enable building owners and city leaders to track progress toward environmental, social and governance goals.
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“Imagine a rating system adaptive and responsive to the ever-changing world around us. This is what we are working toward with LEED,” Baker says. “Now that LEED v4.1 is out and has been positively received by the community, we are exploring how we can strengthen LEED v4.1 and also plan what’s next for the rating system. We are working to ensure that LEED remains a global leadership standard, and we know that as we evolve LEED, industry feedback and support are critical.”
Moving LEED Forward
The USGBC community can participate in the call for LEED proposals session. At Greenbuild in Atlanta from Nov. 19-22, USGBC is hosting the Future of LEED session, which will review some of the feedback and provide updates on performance-based outcomes, transparency and continuous improvement to future versions of LEED.
“We hope the industry will submit feedback as early as possible so we can consider it as we prepare for the session,” Baker says.
Learn more and submit your proposal.
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