News & Insights

LEED v5 launched in April 2025, creating the largest update to LEED in over a decade. As LEED v4 registrations close in early 2026, projects in planning today face a critical choice. Those who wait risk getting caught between systems, while early adopters position themselves to meet growing investor and tenant expectations.

Here are the top things building owners need to know about LEED v5.

Sharper standards for carbon, resilience, and occupant well-being

Practices that were previously optional for green building certification are now required. Buildings account for 30 to 40% of global carbon emissions, so cutting carbon output is central to real environmental progress. LEED v5 reflects this urgency by placing half of all available points on carbon-related strategies—a first for the system. That shift affects everything from material selection to daily operations and aligns with the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting frameworks owners are expected to follow.

LEED v5 also introduces three assessments that guide design and operations from the start:

• Carbon assessment. Projects must evaluate both embodied and operational carbon, plan for electrification, integrate renewables, and advance toward net zero.
• Climate resilience assessment. Teams must identify risks like extreme weather, grid disruption, and long-term climate impacts, then plan for redundancy and durability.
• Human impact assessment. Beyond energy and materials, LEED now calls for occupant well-being considerations: indoor environmental quality, mobility and travel patterns, and overall human experience in the building.

To achieve Platinum Certification, projects are required to be fully electrified, powered by renewables, and achieve maximum energy efficiency and embodied carbon reduction in addition to achieving 80 or more points. When these additional requirements are part of the project design, the LEED v5 rating system rewards the design heavily, awarding maximum points, making it no longer a significant challenge to reach 80 points.

The resilience component tackles events that were once rare, like pandemics, floods, and extreme weather, which are now happening more often. Rather than designing for the worst-case scenario, the standard urges building owners to create thorough response plans and address key concerns through thoughtful design

LEED v5 demands integrated thinking from the start, focusing on embodied carbon metrics, planning for zero waste, planning for net zero, and resiliency models. Everything must fit together, which means project teams need to collaborate more closely than ever before.

Expanding the options available for HVAC & IAQ

The standard takes a more aggressive approach to refrigerants. LEED v5 drives HVAC systems away from refrigerants entirely, or toward refrigerants with 700 GWP (Global Warming Potential) or less. For both new and existing refrigerant-containing equipment, the standard now requires leak checks and repairs prior to substantial completion—something that hasn’t historically been the case for existing systems. For systems with field-assembled joints, teams must perform leak checks, vacuum checks, and pressure checks before charging with refrigerant.

Indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring becomes more prominent in v5, although it was always an option in earlier versions. This change makes practical sense because building flush-outs, while still good practice for removing volatile organic compounds(VOCs) before occupancy, are usually planned but rarely carried out due to tight project timelines. Continuous monitoring addresses this issue by offering a more accurate picture of overall indoor air quality rather than the one-time, one-hour measurements previously used to test IAQ.

LEED v5 also introduces an alternate compliance path for calculating outdoor air ventilation rates, which will allow facilities to explore different ways to design HVAC systems so that ventilation requirements are met while reducing the demand that previous ventilation methods placed on energy consumption. Some unique and cost-effective approaches allow facilities to reduce outdoor air needs by up to 75% while greatly improving indoor air quality and reducing energy consumption, both of which make achieving net-zero energy goals easier to conceive.

These updates reflect the evolution of building science and HVAC technology, expanding the options available to project teams working toward sustainability targets.

Real performance replaces theoretical efficiency for water

Under earlier LEED versions, water use was primarily focused on restroom fixtures, showers, kitchen sinks, and a limited number of process water uses, including those for commercial kitchens and clothes washers. The consumption and reduction in water use were calculated as an annual number based on an assumption of usage and the number of occupants.

In the new LEED v5, water use for the entire facility is factored into the calculations by combining the flush and flow rates for fixtures with any water use in cooling towers and outdoor water needs. Where v4 placed an emphasis on additional metering of end uses to support water management, limit potential material waste due to water leak damages, and identify opportunities for additional water savings, v5 adds an option to have leak detection sensors as an optional strategy.

LEED v5 raises the bar on CxA

While commissioning for MEP systems has always been a LEED requirement, the new requirements within LEED v5 place a greater emphasis on including monitoring-based commissioning or retro-commissioning as essential tools for decarbonization efforts. This monitoring-based approach employs data analytics and fault detection to optimize systems far beyond occupancy start.

In LEED v5, when the project is under 20,000 square feet or a data center, commissioning agents can no longer come from the design or construction teams. For enhanced commissioning, the CxA now needs to be named in predesign or very early in design—well before the project is underway.

Their role is more hands-on too. The CxA is expected to join design review meetings at the 50% and 100% CD milestones, help develop the Owner’s Project Requirements, and review a portion of the contractor documentation. What used to be an enhanced task—developing an ongoing commissioning plan—has moved into the fundamental project scope.

Fundamental commissioning also expands to include building envelope activities in the Cx documents, including sample testing that must be witnessed. On the standards side, MEP commissioning is tied to ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1 (without Section 4.2.5.2 exceptions), enhanced commissioning references ASHRAE Standard 202, and building enclosure commissioning has been updated to ASTM E2947-21a, replacing the 2016 version.

With monitoring-based commissioning, projects can more closely track potential issues within MEP systems rather than just overall use, and for LEED v5 projects, the monitoring timeline has expanded to a minimum of three years.

Finally, enhanced enclosure commissioning now requires field testing for air leakage, water penetration, and infrared imaging.

Materials are evaluated on how they reduce carbon footprint

LEED v5 reorganizes the materials section by focusing on three key objectives: eliminating waste, minimizing carbon impact, and facilitating responsible procurement. This approach goes beyond basic attributes like recycled content or local sourcing, instead looking at a product’s overall environmental impact across its entire life cycle.

Environmental Product Declarations take center stage in material selection. They enable straightforward comparisons that break down marketing hype and focus on tangible environmental effects. These standardized evaluations cover the entire life cycle, from raw material extraction to manufacturing, transportation, and end-of-life disposal.

Under the new standard, projects must assess and measure embodied carbon for all structural, enclosure, and hardscape elements from start to finish. Performing early studies to assess projected embodied carbon in tandem with the structural team will be essential to meeting targets. This detailed accounting shows that design choices have a measurable impact on the building’s total carbon footprint. Under the new system, materials recovered from construction sites receive a 200% valuation. This provides a strong incentive for circular economy approaches by recognizing the carbon savings that come with keeping materials in use rather than sending them to landfills and manufacturing new ones.

Building owners should look to maximize this opportunity by looking for general contractors with emissions tracking experts as part of the construction team.

Competitive advantages extend beyond certification

LEED v5’s updates bring competitive advantages that go beyond certification points. Buildings built to meet these standards start with top-notch performance characteristics. This leads to enhanced user experiences and stronger portfolio performance from the get-go.

Operational carbon projections needed for LEED v5 provide a clear path to achieving net-zero goals by 2050, along with detailed plans for electrification and decarbonization upgrades. Aligning carbon reporting helps organizations meet ESG requirements by using greenhouse gas protocols to create consistent, comparable metrics across their building portfolios.

By focusing on occupant experience and incorporating biophilic design elements that were once only available as pilot credits, it’s possible to create environments that have been shown to boost occupancy productivity and wellbeing. Buildings with these properties have also been successful in achieving increased rental rates due to the additional sustainability metrics/measures.

How Salas O’Brien can help

LEED v5’s complexity requires expertise that goes beyond traditional design services. You need partners who understand how every choice affects the bigger picture and can coordinate the specialized teams required for each aspect of the new standard.

Salas O’Brien’s team has been at the forefront of every LEED adoption, personally reviewing some of the very first LEED projects at every benchmark and maintaining deep expertise across all aspects of green building certification. This experience, combined with sustainable design services, comprehensive MEP design, commissioning capabilities for both MEP systems and building enclosures, strength in monitoring-based optimization services, and a proven track record on achieving decarbonization goals, truly highlights how our team offers the integrated support LEED v5 requires.

Whether you’re planning new construction or evaluating existing facilities for retro-commissioning opportunities, our team can help you navigate LEED v5’s requirements while delivering buildings that truly perform. The soft costs may increase with the new requirements, but the results are buildings that provide exceptional value from day one.

Ready for a partner who can help you navigate LEED v5? Reach out to one of our experts below to talk.

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