LEED v5 Canadian Feedback Recap

Building Lasting Change 2024 provided a wonderful opportunity to showcase the draft LEED v5 rating systems and the review process CAGBC has conducted over the past two months. Attendees at BLC’s LEED v5 Forum first heard from Corey Enck, Vice-President of LEED Technical Development at USGBC, with a detailed technical overview on LEED v5 and its stronger role in decarbonization. 

Marsha Gentile, Director of Sustainability for Ledcor Construction Ltd. and a member of CAGBC’s LEED v5 Accelerators, followed up with an overview of the process for gathering feedback from CAGBC’s committees and members. She also recapped some key aspects of what CAGBC appreciated in the new rating systems and what we hoped to see changed. CAGBC provided 188 comments on LEED v5 BD+C: NC, CS and ID+C, and another 86 for LEED v5 O+M.

Among the top aspects that CAGBC committees liked were: 

• Specific minimum requirements for platinum level projects so that it is clear what a platinum project stands for; 
• Stronger emphasis on decarbonization and embodied carbon; 
• Human-centric and ESG elements; 
• Clear direction on how performance is measured in LEED O+M; and, 
• LEED O+M’s balance between measuring performance and putting in place new strategies for improvements.

CAGBC Committees also put forth ideas for potential improvements, including: 

• Streamlining wherever possible and clearly spelling out credit requirements; 
• Limiting which credits are part of the minimum requirements for platinum level projects; and, 
• Avoiding unintentional barriers within prerequisites. 

Lyle Scott, Principal of Footprint and chair of CAGBC’s LEED Advisory Committee led a feedback session requesting audience participation. Attendees presented new thoughts that included: 

• Appreciation of ESG principles with the suggestion that these be aligned with other metrics that firms need to report, like those through CRREM and GRESB; 
• Harmonization of how data is collected to streamline reporting against multiple platforms; 
• A request that the draft LEED v5 BD+C: Core and Shell ensure that all prerequisites and sufficient credits allow a path for certifying industrial warehouses, which have limited ability to achieve credits that are based on interior elements; and, 
• That paths be found to recognize and encourage project teams to track the embodied carbon of system services. 

CAGBC thanks the LEED v5 Accelerators, the LEED Advisory Committee and the two Technical Advisory Groups (Embodied Carbon and Energy & Engineering) for their intensive review of the drafts. If additional CAGBC members would like to join in the review process for the second public comment period (expected in September), there is still time to join a LEED v5 Accelerator.