LEED V5: NOTABLE CHANGES IN THE SECOND PUBLIC COMMENT DRAFTS
By USGBC with CAGBC The first public comment period for LEED v5 garnered nearly 6,000 comments across three rating systems: Building Design and Construction (BD+C, which includes New Construction and Core and Shell Development), Interior Design and Construction (ID+C) and Operations and Maintenance (O+M). CAGBC’s committees provided nearly 5% of those comments on behalf of the Canadian market.Since the close of that period, the community of LEED volunteers, as well as USGBC and GBCI staff, have diligently reviewed each comment, responded and made revisions. The results of that work are found in the newest rating system drafts available as part of LEED v5’s second public comment period. The changes range from language clarifications to more substantive rating system structure and credit requirement changes. Below, you’ll find some of the more notable changes. The full list of comments and responses, along with the new drafts, are available at usgbc.org/ LEED/v5.
GLOBALLY APPLICABLE USGBC understands that LEED customers are looking for information on how LEED intersects with global taxonomies and the assurance of global applicability and support. They plan to create international compliance paths for all global regions, and to provide guidance for relevant taxonomies for the regions as part of that compliance path development.
DESIGN + CONSTRUCTION The first public comment draft featured many new concepts to the rating system, including a series of prerequisite assessments. While the comments applauded the progress in these areas, they also called for adjustments in language and scope to address potential barriers and provide clarity. In response, the new drafts hone the approach to each assessment with the intention of laying a foundation that can be built on over time.
20
FALL 2024 | BC FOCUS
In some cases, it was determined that requirements of credits and/ or prerequisites worked better in a packaged format. For example, Sustainable Sites (SS) prerequisite Resilient Site Design was folded into SS credit Enhanced Resilient Site Design. Other credits were merged together. Many credits also saw adjustments based on spring feedback including Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, and Materials and Resources. You can read more about these tweaks at usgbe.org.
OPERATIONS + MAINTENANCE The rating system was streamlined based on feedback, with a reduction in the total number of individual strategies from over 65 to 24, focusing on what is most impactful and repackaging content to be easier to understand. Many comments referenced that users appreciated the performancebased approach from LEED v4.1. The second public comment draft has been rebalanced, with 80% of points connected to performance and 20% of points connected to strategies. Now that these approaches have been decoupled, it is clear which credits are connected to performance and those connected to strategies. This was done by prioritizing the strategies with outcomes not achievable through performance data, versus those with outcomes that overlapped with performance. Strategies and outcomes have been further prioritized according to: what can make the biggest positive impact on projects; that the operations and maintenance team can influence; that could be implemented in less than a year; is less complex or resource-intensive; and, can apply to many types of projects. Visit usgbc.org/LEED/v5 for more information.