Putting LEED Principles into Actions / by Admin

An event throwback at Greenbuild 2022

Speakers:

  • Melissa Baker, Senior Vice President, USGBC

  • Sarah Talkington, Engineer, City of Austin Texas.

  • Corey Enck, VP, LEED TEchnical Development. USGBC

  • Laurie Kerr, President, LK Policy Lab

In June 2022, professionals gathered at Greenbuild to share the future direction of LEED and its further development. Melissa Baker led the session and broke into six significant principles for guest speakers to share their insights. 

During the session, speakers detailed answering the following questions. 

How to scale LEED's impact

Sarah Talkington shared these priorities: First is focusing on the existing building to align with the climate goal set by the Paris Agreement. The second is to maintain the reference of LEED standards but simplify its requirements. Last is utilizing a streamed-lined platform to support all LEED products and ESG reporting. 

How to maximize decarbonization

Regarding the decarbonization issue, USGBC did a survey and found out more than half of respondents think it is crucial to prioritize carbonization. More than 75% of surveyors thought LEED should include net-zero-ready carbon projects, and only 22% of participants thought LEED should require net-zero carbon projects. 

Sarah Talkington continued to share how to establish decarbonization pathways—actionable plans such as prioritizing reductions from on-site combustion. Lower the peak of cooling and heating load. Reduce the embodied carbon. Use grid harmonization. Establish minimal requirements for EV (electric vehicle) charging. Use lower GWP (Global Warming Potential) refrigerant. Use construction equipment and techniques that are less carbon-intensive. Align LEED projects with regulatory drivers such as Building performance standards or ESG reporting. 

Corey Enck shared the LEED v4 updates and how they align with the industry standard. For example, the LEED v4 still references ASHRAE 90.1-2010 with the intent not to disrupt the market too much and to simultaneously keep pathways to versions 2013, 2016, and 2019. He also shared a few highlights on LEED v4.1, such as equitable development, EV (electric vehicles), process water, using ASHRAE 90.1-2016 as the reference standard, and credits involving embodied carbon and high-impact renewables. 

Laurie Kerr further emphasized the importance of decarbonization in the building sector because building structures constituted about 40% of US carbon emissions. She then pointed out four key trends: 1. We should focus more on carbon (decarbonization, carbon sequestration) rather than consuming less energy. 2. We should stop onsite combustion and use electricity instead. 3. We should focus on improving existing buildings by city mandates. 4. We should solve all carbon issues, not just the carbon from the operational process. All four trends encompass one goal: to reach the climate target by 2050 through LEED's more rigorous credit system. Therefore, exploring LEED's gold (New Construction) and platinum level (new construction and existing buildings) requirements is a feasible plan to start. 

How can LEED inspire an adaptive and resilient built environment?

USGBC conducted a survey asking," How has resilience planning become part of a sustainability project?" The result of the poll showed that among the participants, 57% of the participants think that resilient planning has yet to become part of the LEED planning process.  

Corey Enck pointed out that we could use the phase-out plan through ambiguous requirements to shift carbon-positive buildings to carbon-neutral to achieve adaptiveness. To achieve resilience, we can use techniques such as emphasizing risk assessment, resilient site selection/ design, and passive strategies. 

One of LEED's central missions is to influence market transformation. Corey Enck ended the session by continuing to answer the following essential questions:

  • How to leverage LEED to enhance our health and well-being

  • How to create a diverse, equal, and inclusive built environment through LEED

  • How to support ecosystems and implement regenerative development 

Of Note:

  • To get the complete answer of those questions, you can download the entire "The Future of LEED" report with this link. 

  • Listen to Laurie Kerr’s insight on why we shall focus on the exisiting buildings to pivot current global warming trajectory on Episode 64 delivered by Design the Future Potcast.

  • If you are interested to know how to reuse exisiting buildings (programming-wise) or make new buildings more adaptable for the future, please check [Adaptive Buildings]: beauty of 30 by 30.