US Green Building Council Research Articles

Evolution of the (Energy and Atmosphere) credit category in the LEED green buildings rating system for (Building Design and Construction: New Construction), from version 4.0 to version 4.1

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a certification program for quantitatively assessing the qualifications of homes, non-residential buildings, or neighborhoods in terms of sustainability. LEED is supported by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a nonprofit membership-based organization. Worldwide, thousands of projects received one of the four levels of LEED certification. One of the five rating systems (or specialties) covered by LEED is the Building Design and Construction (BD + C), representing non-residential buildings. This rating system is further divided into eight adaptations. The adaptation (New Construction and Major Renovation) or NC applies to newly constructed projects as well as those going through a major renovation. The NC adaptation has six major credit categories, in addition to three minor ones. The nine credit categories together have a total of 110 attainable points. The Energy and Atmosphere (EA) credit category is the dominant one in the NC adaptation, with 33 attainable points under it. This important credit category addresses the topics of commissioning, energy consumption records, energy efficiency, use of refrigerants, utilization of onsite or offsite renewable energy, and real-time electric load management. This study aims to highlight some differences in the EA credit category for LEED BD + C:NC rating system as it evolved from version 4 (LEED v4, 2013) to version 4.1 (LEED v4.1, 2019). For example, the updated version 4.1 includes a metric for greenhouse gas reduction. Also, the updated version 4.1 no longer permits hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants in new heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, and refrigeration systems (HVAC & R). In addition, the updated version 4.1 classifies renewable energy into three tiers, differentiating between onsite, new-asset offsite, and old-asset offsite types.

Green building progress assessment: analysis of registered and certified buildings for LEED rating system

Green buildings are of great importance to overcome climate change effects and the depletion of natural resources. This paper aims to provide a review of the progress in green building constructions that have used the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system for the last two decades. To do this the researchers have analyzed the data of around 61000 LEED-registered buildings (from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) website) Using Google data analysis module studying different factors affecting green building growth and trying to spot any possible correlation between LEED and each factor. The review will provide the researchers and the construction industry with the necessary information about the analysis of green building development. The results showed the trends in the green building progress and provided insight analysis for the reasons behind this progress which can help rating system developers, green building designers, and governmental decision-makers, to promote green building worldwide.

Embodied Energy and Carbon Footprint of Concrete Compared to Other Construction Materials

The main objective of infrastructure design codes is to protect the public’s welfare, health, and safety, none of which appear directly related to the current sustainability movement that has focused on protecting the natural environment, conserving resources, and minimizing the toxicity of construction materials and processes. Some United States jurisdictions have adopted language related to sustainability based on the United States Green Building Council to curtail adverse effects of global climate change, minimize environmental impact of new construction of built assets (i.e., buildings and infrastructure), and in some cases, improve air quality in the community. The focus of this paper is to compare the embodied energy and carbon footprint of various construction materials: concrete, steel, timber, masonry, and fiber reinforced composites. To properly compare these materials from a sustainability standpoint, we propose an index that characterizes material ecological properties by dividing strength and stiffness by embodied energy. The index is similar to the structural specific properties index used to characterize the mechanical properties of materials (i.e., strength and stiffness divided by density). Using this ecological index, concrete and steel appear to be the most sustainable materials. As a result of their higher strength and stiffness, concrete and steel require less embodied energy to satisfy specific structural demands. Keywords: embodied energy, carbon footprint, LEED, specific embodied energy

Principles of sustainable development in family leisure centers

The article examines the principles of sustainable development, which dictate new approaches and tools for the design of modern multifunctional family leisure centers in the conditions of a metropolis. The study is aimed at determining the approaches and principles that must be used in the modern architecture of family leisure centers in order to meet global demand and the requirements of sustainable development, which are guided by the UN and other world public organizations. The use of ecological and energy-saving means in the process of designing multifunctional family leisure centers, aimed at achieving the durability of buildings, reducing operating costs, reducing the cost of construction, influencing the awareness of the population about reducing the level of pollution, is based on ecological principles and careful management of natural resources and autonomy.
 The new challenges of time and the high rhythm of life in cities require in the future an increase in the quality and number of recreation places, facilities for recovery and spending time together, namely multifunctional family leisure centers. Meanwhile, high standards and requirements for the design and architecture of new buildings, dictated by the principles of sustainable development, require new design, engineering, innovative solutions and approaches. The world began to change more rapidly in the last 30 years, and its population must quickly adapt to new conditions. At the same time, there are some things that do not change or change very little: the insolation of the sun, the speed of the wind, the physical characteristics of concrete and metal, and others.
 Thus, architects can create buildings and projects using modern technologies, principles and tools of sustainable development, and as a result, these projects can be durable and can be called sustainable. There are many systems for assessing the sustainability of buildings around the world. In addition to the US Green Building Council, which administers the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Efficiency (LEED) system, there are other rating systems that have been developed to measure the level of sustainability of buildings and provide best practice experiences with the highest level of certification.

КВИНТЭССЕНЦИЯ ТОТАЛЬНОГО ЭКОЛОГИЧЕСКОГО ПРОЕКТИРОВАНИЯ В ДИЗАЙНЕ

Recently, a new round of transformation has been taking place in design thinking, which consists of considering a design object as a single whole with nature. Nature is considered from the point of view of a formative source, the resource of which can be used in the design and construction of environmental objects in order to create new bioforms, eco-materials and structures to reduce energy consumption while maintaining comfort. The push for sustainable design has intensified with the launch of the Building Research Institute’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM). It introduces the first green building rating system. In addition, the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has formulated new criteria aimed at improving the environmental performance of buildings through its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). In Russia, the existing “Green” standards create practices for solving broader problems of sustainable development, such as zero-energy construction concepts, living, regenerative and restorative construction concepts that improve the natural environment or simulate natural processes. This will initiate the search for new design strategies using the tools of immersive design concepts for the development of socially-oriented projects aimed at supporting the global trend of total environmental design. The article analyzes the artificial and natural elements of the exposition complexes from the perspective of ecological design. In Russia, the existing “Green” standards create practices for solving broader problems of sustainable development, such as zero-energy construction concepts, living, regenerative and restorative construction concepts that improve the natural environment or simulate natural processes. This will initiate the search for new design strategies using the tools of immersive design concepts for the development of socially-oriented projects aimed at supporting the global trend of total environmental design. The article analyzes the artificial and natural elements of the exposition complexes from the perspective of ecological design. Examples of the organization of sensory, interactive exhibition and development spaces are given. The role of ecological design in modern information and educational culture is revealed. The article discusses the principles of integration of the virtual environment with the information space, describes the structure and technology of obtaining information, structuring and compiling databases, coordinating, interacting and managing design forms and objects.

Evaluating the Sustainability of New Construction Projects over Time by Examining the Evolution of the LEED Rating System

In 1998, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program to provide a standard form of evaluation for sustainability in building design and construction. Since its inception, LEED has undergone seven significant revisions, wherein the expectations needed to achieve the desired certification level were clarified and updated. The reasons for these updates are varied and include the recognition of new technologies and materials, the application of more stringent energy standards, and the recognition of differences in building types. However, the perception within the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is that higher certification levels are more challenging to obtain in each subsequent version of LEED. For example, projects receiving a Gold certification under LEED 2.1 may only qualify for a Silver certification under LEED 3.0. The goals of this paper are to review changes in LEED over time and to empirically test this perception. Direct comparisons of the text of the credit requirements were performed between LEED versions (v) 2.1, v2.2, and v3.0 on a credit-by-credit basis. The comparison revealed ten different categories of changes between versions. From this comparison, conversion matrices were developed to allow a project scorecard from an older version of LEED to be converted to a newer version. To address uncertainty resulting from changing the level of detail in the information submitted on project scorecards, both strict and interpretative versions of these matrices were developed. These matrices were then applied to a sample of LEED-certified building projects, drawn using a stratified random sampling procedure from the publicly available USGBC database. The strata were separated first by LEED version (e.g., v2.1, v2.2, and v3.0) and then by certification level (e.g., Certified, Silver, Gold, Platinum). After converting the project scorecards from this sample, qualitative and correlational analyses were performed to test the hypothesis that LEED scores increase over time. The results show that in both strict and interpretive transformations, LEED scores show a slight to moderate increase in points over time.

Market Transformation Towards Sustainability in Saudi Arabia: A Comparison Between Mostadam And LEED Rating Systems

The Saudi Vision 2030 launched several visualization programs, including the housing program, to create a vibrant environment for families and society. The Ministry of Housing created Mostadam, a national green building rating system that Sustainable Building operates to achieve this aim. Previously, buildings in Saudi Arabia were primarily certified using the US Green Building Council's LEED Rating system. (USGBC). The study investigates the market transformation towards sustainability in Saudi Arabia by comparing Mostadam and LEED. The study's main objectives are to compare Mostadam and LEED in terms of rating systems, certification levels, and the weight of categories offered in the two rating systems. The market transformation is investigated by using comparative analysis. Results showed that the Mostadam rated building is more adapted to the Saudi construction industry, and this is because awareness about building sustainability transformed the market towards more sustainable construction.

Towards achieving Platinum standards for Green Building certification: a case study using Jakarta International Stadium (JIS) design

Jakarta International Stadium (JIS) will be the largest FIFA-standard stadium in Indonesia equipped with 82,000 seating capacities, two training pitches, and retractable roof on its top. Parking lots will be limited in numbers; however, many modern public transportation systems will pass over the area to encourage people not to use private vehicles. As the Project Owner, PT. Jakarta Propertindo (Perseroda) has set the target to achieve Platinum-standard in Green Building. As of mid-July 2021, JIS was still under construction with the actual progress of around 64 %, however, its design has met the sustainability’s highest requirements as Green Building Council Indonesia (GBCI) has awarded Greenship platinum to JIS’ design with the score of 81.8%. The final assessment (FA), which includes on-site measurement and verification, will be performed after the construction is completed. This research is aimed to measure the efficacy of Greenship grade in Indonesia’s sustainable building design by comparing it with another international rating system. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) from U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) which is famous to its stringency in energy performance assessment, was chosen to be another benchmark for this project. The result shows that if LEED criteria were applied at JIS, the design could score up to 77.4% which meet the conditions for platinum level.

LEED-CI V3 AND V4 GOLD PROJECTS FOR OFFICE SPACES: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHANGHAI AND CALIFORNIA

ABSTRACT The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system is currently progressing from version 3 (V3) to 4 (V4) with the aim of reducing environmental damage in the global construction sector. The LEED Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) subsystem is widely used for office spaces, particularly in Shanghai and California. Comparing Shanghai and California in terms of LEED-CI projects can shed light on the ability of the LEED-CI subsystem to adapt to local green building standards and local environmental conditions. The aim of this study was to assess the difference between V3 and V4 LEED-CI Gold office projects using a comparison between Shanghai and California. The US Green Building Council and the Green Building Information Gateway databases were used to source LEED-CI V3 and V4 Gold office projects. The natural logarithm of the odds ratio and Fisher’s exact 2 × 2 tests with a mid p-value were used to evaluate the binary data, while the Cliff’s δ and exact Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney tests were used to evaluate the ordinal data. The results show no difference between Shanghai and California in terms of LEED-CI V3 Gold office projects in the five main LEED-CI categories. The shift from V3 to V4 LEED-CI Gold office projects is increasing the difference between Shanghai and California in terms of the following LEED-CI categories: location and transportation, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, and materials and resources. Therefore, as compared to V3, V4 for LEED-CI Gold office projects demonstrated greater adaptability to local green building standards and environmental conditions.

A review of techniques and errors involved in sound isolation testing

Construction industry design standards are increasingly calling for new construction to be inspected and tested for compliance with design specifications after the project is built; otherwise known as the commissioning process. As part of this trend, owners, sensitive to the acoustics of their facilities, are seeking confirmation via measurements that their buildings meet sound isolation and background noise requirements, particularly when pursuing certifications under the US Green Building Council LEED standard, the WELL Building Standard, or other green building or wellness standards. In general, the error of sound isolation measurements is not officially established. This poses challenges to designers tasked with specifying assemblies and components to meet field verification requirements. This paper will briefly review current research and standards on the error of measurements such as Noise Isolation Class (NIC) and the Weighted Level Difference (D) and discuss example design standards and guidelines which do or do not account for this error. It will also propose further research topics to better define the error in sound isolation measurements and best practices when establishing or designing to sound isolation criteria in new or renovated buildings.

LEED Scores of Residential Buildings in Poor Cities: Kabul City Case

Urbanization and technology have proven to be detrimental to the environment. Buildings contribute a significant portion of this damage. This issue motivated governments, builders, engineers, and architects to seek ways to reduce buildings’ environmental footprints. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is one of the most widely used strategies to ensure energy efficiency and a clean environment in buildings. In Afghanistan, where there are no active regulatory frameworks for energy saving and efficiency for the building sector, it is imperative to promote the transformation of the building industry and practices towards sustainability. In this regard, the role of the residential building sector is of utmost importance due to its major share in the country’s energy consumption and GHG emissions profile. Thus, this study assesses the energy efficiency and environmental impact of existing buildings in Kabul city concerning the LEED rating system. This research suggests practical steps to improve the sustainability of the residential building stock in Kabul city. Robust sets of data on existing residential buildings in Kabul are collected, classified, evaluated, and compared to LEED standards. This research reveals and concludes that most of the existing buildings in Kabul city are in poor conditions and do not meet the minimum requirements to be a candidate for LEED certification. A detailed analysis of the results has led to recommendations on how these buildings could improve to meet the LEED criteria. This is the first study of its kind conducted for Kabul city residential building. Considering the cross-sectoral nature of the building industry, the findings of this study will contribute to many other areas such as water, transportation, ICT, health, energy and the environment.

Sustainability at an Urban Level: A Case Study of a Neighborhood in Dubai, UAE

The United Arab Emirates is witnessing enormous growth and the sustainability attitude has become one of the most important priorities in this development. This paper aims to optimize the environmental sustainability of the Emirate of Dubai communities by adopting an existing community as a case study. The investigation of the case study is looking at sustainability levels that consists of two major factors in neighborhood sustainable design, such as livability and thermal performance. The strategy of enhancing and optimizing the communities’ sustainability starts with an approach to the applicable modifications and solutions to the existed community master planning, where the modifications cover the two main urban design variables; (a) building design, and (b) open and landscape areas. The effect of the adopted scenarios is analyzed to find the improvement in environmental and thermal performance. The study has adopted two computer software packages, namely CityCAD and Integrated Environmental Solutions—Virtual Environment (IES-VE), to undertake the assessments. Furthermore, factors of urban sustainability are evaluated using the United States Green Building Council (USGBC)’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) neighborhood assessment tool. The results have shown that the environmental sustainability levels can be increased after the adoption of certain suggested scenarios, in order to mitigate the likely weakness indicated in the livability aspects, covering land-use diversity, accessibility, transportation system, green and landscape areas, and energy efficiency, and the case study community can be turned toward “Sustainable Community” by implementing recommended actions and modifications.

Whole building life cycle assessment for buildings: A case study ON HOW to achieve the LEED credit

Whole building life cycle assessment (WBLCA) has received significant attention from the research community in the past few years. The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has made it an option for receiving points in version 4 of its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. Yet, the research described in this paper has revealed that the process of WBLCA as applied to LEED is not very well understood by building professionals. As many building professionals do not understand WBLCA, very few pursue it for their new building projects. The objective of the research described in this paper was to examine and clarify issues related to WBLCA as it applies to LEED. The paper presents a six-step process for conducting a WBLCA and use the process on a building case study for which a LEED compliant WBLCA was conducted and approved. The paper also suggests improvements to the current LEED WBLCA requirements that have the potential to further reduce the embodied energy and environmental impacts of materials used in new building projects. The ultimate goal of the research presented in the paper is to increase the building industry awareness of the WBLCA process and make it “business as usual”.

The development of a Nexus based green architecture ranking system in Iran

The concept of green architecture, also known as "sustainable development" or "green building," is the theory, science, and style of buildings designed and built based on environmentally friendly principles. Green architecture seeks to minimize the number of resources used in the construction, operation, and management of the building and limit the damage caused to the environment by spreading, pollution, and waste of building components. New water and materials are used to design, build, operate and conserve building energy and generate large amounts of waste that negatively affect health and the environment. To limit these effects and design environmentally sound and resource-efficient buildings, the concept of "green building systems" needs to be introduced, clarified and understood, and practiced. One of the solutions is to use green building methods in the construction industry in today's world. Demand for sustainability as a definitive solution to all environmental challenges Inspired by this research to emphasize the priority of increasing sustainable environmental productivity to reduce carbon emissions to discuss and demonstrate sustainable buildings in Iran (new and existing) and Presenting the principles of energy audit used in them and their performance toward standards. Meanwhile, Iran is ranked as one of the good countries in building growth and green energy in the Middle East and other countries, according to the US Green Building Council's ranking of energy consumption, renewable energy, and recycled materials in 2015-2016.

A performance assessment on Compressed Stabilized Earth Block (CSEB) using geo – polymeric binders

The development of the country mainly depends on Rural Development. About 55% of rural peoples still live in earth building. According to the US Green Building Council, the building sector accounts for 39% of the global emission of CO2. If new technologies were not adopted means the emission could be doubled by the year 2050 according to United Nation Environment Program (UNEP). New technology is required to sustain the environment and earth materials. In India, One of the recently developing technology is Compressed Stabilized Earth Block (CSEB). This CSEB technology replaces the usage of conventional burnt clay bricks. In this Context, The earth materials are not widely used in CSEB because it includes the vital part of industrial wastes. The characteristics of CSEB with Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS), Fly Ash of class-F and coir fiber are to be investigated. Nowadays, the controlling, management and disposal of waste materials are a difficult task. The Flyash-F is an industrial waste material that is obtained from a thermal power plant and it contains a low amount of CaO. GGBFS is also an industrial waste obtained from the quenching molten iron slag in steel industries. About 20-25% of dry volume soil is replaced by a combination of Flyash and GGBFS with the addition of a geopolymer solution. Both the waste materials bring the CSE-Block as eco-friendly to the environment and cost-effective. Besides, The CSEB exhibits high strength, low creep, very minimum water absorption and good erosion resistance. In this paper, we are experimentally investigating the compressive strength and water absorption nature of CSEB with varying ratios of binders and Geo-Polymeric solution.

AORN Position Statement on Environmental Responsibility

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Understanding the Effects of Capturing Climate and Occupancy Trends During Concept-Stage Sustainable Building Design

Abstract This paper presents a model prediction to capture specifically how energy usage in sustainable buildings on college campuses is affected by different variables of student life. The California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) Student Housing Phase III, which received a Platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for the Building Design and Construction category, with its performance in a LEED California Nonresidential Title 24 (NRT24) and ASHRAE 90.1 climate zones, is used as a case study to illustrate the method. Through LEED-approved software, the standard compliant energy models are compared with the occupancy-scheduled models along with the actual energy consumption in different climate zones. The results provide insight into how variables within student dormitory life affect the total building energy usage. The total amount of energy consumed per area is one new factor providing understanding into occupancy trends. This new data set reveals more understanding regarding how and where the energy is consumed to maintain a comfortable learning environment. The LEED certification program is one benchmark used to determine sustainable building design. Designers must adhere to set standards before being awarded a U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) certification such as LEED. The results from this paper will provide input over which variables within student dormitory life affect the energy usage of the building. With the model results, some solutions are presented to update the LEED project certification as well as to reduce student energy usage.

Construction waste minimization in green building: A comparative analysis of LEED-NC 2009 certified projects in the US and China

Construction waste minimization is a key sustainability goal in green building rating systems. Although these rating systems traverse countries’ boundaries, no research so far has compared construction waste minimization performance in such systems across countries. This research aims to investigate and compare the construction waste minimization performance of green building projects in the US and China by focusing on the widely adopted LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification system. Data on 599 and 297 LEED-New Construction (NC) 2009 certified projects in the US and China, respectively, were sourced from the US Green Building Council project directory. Their construction waste minimization-related points were compared using the Mann-Whitney U and effect size test, and semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify the possible causes behind statistical analysis results. We found no significant difference in construction waste minimization performance of LEED platinum-level projects in the US and China, but the magnitude of the difference between two countries increased as the certification level went lower. The enforcement on regulations, recycling market development, public consciousness and advanced technologies lead to the differences while the influence of the political, economic, social, and technological context increased when the projects were certified with lower LEED levels. An amenable context should be fostered to achieve a better construction waste minimization performance in green building and a sustainable development goal.

LEED v4.1 operations & maintenance for existing buildings and compliance assessment: Bayt Al-Suhaymi, Historic Cairo

The architectural design and environmental treatments have shown a large impact on environmental indoor performance and energy efficiency of buildings. Designers have been working on more efficient buildings using tools like the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) which is developed within the US Green Building Council (USGBC). This research aims to emphasize the passive design aspects of Islamic buildings in Historic Cairo, with special focus on Bayt Al-Suhaymi. Passive design elements such as architectural design aspects, orientation, façade treatments, selected materials and their impact on the energy efficiency levels are investigated in the research. Measurements of environmental indoor performance levels are carried out within the building where the temperature variance, humidity changes, TVOC and CO2 particles number are considered in a pilot survey. These measurements are employed in the assessment of the indoor environmental quality. Additionally, the building is assessed with reference to all other LEED criteria such as transportation, sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy, materials and innovation. LEED assessment revealed that Bayt Al-Suhaymi as an Islamic historic building could comply with the LEED rating system and could be a candidate to receive LEED gold certification.

A Comprehensive Analysis: Sustainable Trends and Awarded LEED 2009 Credits in Vietnam

Established by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) became a sustainable leader of green building rating systems in American and many other countries. In Vietnam, LEED is expected as a potential solution in improving the sustainable quality of buildings for residents and solving the housing/infrastructure demand with a limit in resource consumption and minimizing negative environmental impacts. The study analyzed the awarded LEED 2009 credits by investigating the data of 36 of the total 42 LEED BC+D 2009 certified projects in Vietnam. The results of the investigation indicated the awarded credits were significantly implemented in Vietnam. These results were converted based on the summary updated on LEED version 4 of the USGBC report, to become a useful guideline for green building cost-efficiency strategies. Additionally, it also served as reference data for the Vietnamese public agency to update their green regulations based on the specific characteristics of Vietnam.