United States Green Building Council Debuts Version 4.1 of its LEED Certification System | Practical Law

United States Green Building Council Debuts Version 4.1 of its LEED Certification System | Practical Law

On March 26, 2018, the United States Green Building Council debuted version 4.1 of its LEED rating system. New version 4.1 seeks to simplify the certification guidelines for existing buildings to increase green development worldwide.

United States Green Building Council Debuts Version 4.1 of its LEED Certification System

by Practical Law Real Estate
Law stated as of 29 Mar 2018 • USA (National/Federal)
On March 26, 2018, the United States Green Building Council debuted version 4.1 of its LEED rating system. New version 4.1 seeks to simplify the certification guidelines for existing buildings to increase green development worldwide.
The US Green Building Council (USGBC), the body which established and administers the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system, released version 4.1 of its operations and maintenance ratings criteria. Deemed an incremental upgrade of the version 4 rating system (released in 2013), version 4.1 looks to simplify the manner in which existing buildings seek to achieve LEED certification, as well as monitor building performance to ensure compliance with LEED standards.

Background

The LEED rating system is used to evaluate the environmental performance of more than 93,000 projects worldwide, and seeks to encourage continued improvement of environmentally conscious development and operation. The system is predicated on awarding points for meeting established criteria. For more guidance on the scoring process and certification levels available to applicants, see Practice Note: Green Buildings: Laws and Practices: LEED Certification.
Version 4.1 institutes changes to LEED's criteria for certification for existing building operations and maintenance (O&M). O&M version 4.1 is the first upgrade to the version 4 ratings system, and is a trial balloon for additional development and revision of LEED's other certification categories.
O&M categories within which a building can earn points toward certification include:
  • Location and transportation.
  • Sustainable sites.
  • Water efficiency.
  • Energy and atmosphere.
  • Materials and resources.
  • Indoor environmental quality.
  • Innovation.
  • The version 4.1 O&M scorecard is available on the USGBC resources webpage.

Version 4.1 Changes

Version 4.1 has been released in beta for testing, and remains open to comment and revision.
Changes of note in version 4.1's O&M criteria include:
  • Prerequisites. LEED has long required applicants to meet certain prerequisites before being eligible to earn points toward certification. Version 4.1 alters and adds some O&M prerequisites, and in certain instances, shifts criteria from point-bearing to prerequisite. The following criteria are now prerequisites to a building achieving O&M certification:
    • transportation performance;
    • water performance;
    • energy performance; and
    • indoor environmental quality performance.
  • Removal of Credits. LEED has eliminated credits associated with certain practices or building features, often in favor of consolidating the categories under which credits are awarded. Examples of criteria for which credit has been eliminated include:
    • site management policy;
    • site development to protect or restore habitat; and
    • outdoor water use reduction (this category and other location specific water performance is captured within the new prerequisite).
  • New Credits. Section 4.1 establishes new criteria under which credits are awarded, often as a consolidation of actions and criteria associated with removed credits. For example, credit is now awarded for:
    • green cleaning; and
    • purchasing.
  • Monitoring. Credits can be earned by monitoring building performance using the Arc platform.
For the new O&M guide, see LEED v4.1 for Building Operations and Maintenance.
For a summary of the changes instituted by version 4.1, see LEED v4.1 Operations and Maintenance: Getting started guide for beta participants.
For varied additional guidance on LEED version 4.1, including redlines showing the changes to the version 4.0 O&M guide, see The next step for LEED is LEED v4.1.

Practical Implications

The changes implemented by version 4.1 streamline and simplify the criteria existing developments must meet to become LEED certified. By doing so, USGBC has taken a step toward its stated goal to make green buildings and development commonplace. The increased accessibility of the O&M standards should make LEED certification more appealing to property owners and managers. Counsel for building owners and managers should become familiar with the revised guidelines and contribute to the ongoing discussion of how to further revise and improve them.
USGBC plans to develop new versions of its other rating systems based on the reception to O&M version 4.1. Counsel for developers, owners, and property managers should contribute to, and encourage clients to contribute to, the discussion surrounding version 4.1, and the development of similar new versions. USGBC has solicited commentary on version 4.1 on its LEED v4.1 webpage.