Fremont Office Building | LEED Gold | Photo: Built Work Photography
The world faces staggering challenges through 2050 in terms of health, water scarcity, air quality, resilience and climate change. Addressing these issues requires us to build a world that is regenerative. That is why USGBC introduced LEED Positive, a vision that will help us push the market beyond lessening the negative impact of buildings to reach a future that allows buildings, cities and communities to become vehicles of restoration and repair.
LEED Positive includes four elements:
- Continued investment in LEED v4.1
- Performance category certificates that existing buildings can earn in categories like water or energy, using the Arc performance platform
- More stringent energy goals for existing buildings
- Required net-positive performance in carbon, energy and other LEED categories for both new construction and existing buildings
Required net-positive performance
While the proposed energy reductions can apply to both new and existing buildings, we will require new buildings to accelerate their reduction and quickly become LEED Positive. One of the proven ways to accomplish this is through our certification levels and prerequisites.
USGBC will begin to define LEED Positive targets for LEED credit categories beyond energy and carbon. We will also communicate how LEED, as a holistic rating system, contributes to raising the living standard of people around by the world by supporting concepts such as ESG, circular economy, health and wellness, resilience and social equity.