USGBC Announces Updates to LEED v4

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has announced a range of updates in the primary version of its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification program, LEED v4.

The council issued the updates to better address climate change and carbon emissions. According to the USGBC, the revisions will raise the threshold of LEED v4 to encourage greater energy performance and further align LEED v4 with LEED v4.1, which raised the bar on energy and climate upon its release in 2018. Additionally, USGBC Building Design and Construction (BD+C) and Interior Design and Construction (ID+C) projects will be able to demonstrate improvement in energy performance with LEED v4.1’s metric of energy cost or greenhouse gas emissions as well as LEED v4’s original source energy metric.

“From day one, USGBC has been committed to the continuous improvements and advancement of green buildings standards. The new updates to LEED v4 affirm that climate is core to LEED,” said Peter Templeton, USGBC president and CEO. “LEED certification has been a critical tool to help empower organizations to build and improve the conditions of buildings today that address climate change.”

For more on LEED certification, visit the www.usgbc.org/leed.