Though the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) officially launched LEED v4—the organization's updated green building program—today at the annual Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Philadelphia, more than 100 companies and organizations have already been operating under the new standards.

Labeled beta projects, 122 structures around the world already use LEED v4. The first certifications of that group were recognized this week at Greenbuild. The gold-certified commercial interior space of Haworth Beijing Organic Showroom in Beijing, China was the first to gain that distinction under LEED v4. 

“LEED v4 is a quantum leap for LEED,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair, USGBC. “Over the past 15 years, LEED has fundamentally revolutionized how we design, construct, operate and maintain our buildings and communities. LEED has created a completely new industry of business enterprise committed to energy savings and efficiency.

"LEED v4 is as much a testament to the achievements of LEED project teams around the world as it is to the green building community’s ambition to create significant global and local change through resource-efficient, cost-effective green buildings.” 

The USGBC believes the new LEED will accelerate the global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices by setting universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria as it has since 1998.

Here are some of the new aspects of LEED v4: 

• New market sectors: Data centers, warehouses and distribution centers, hospitality, existing schools, existing retail and mid-rise residential projects are all now included.
• Support tools and resources: Step-by-step reference guide materials with videos and tutorials and a more intuitive technology platform are offered by the USGBC. 
• New impact categories: Climate change, human health, water resources, biodiversity, green economy, community and natural resources.

The commercial building and offices spaces at 1800 K St. in Washington, D.C. were awarded LEED v4 Silver. This project was certified as an existing building and is owned by Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management and administered by Transwestern. Also, three core and shell projects earned LEED pre-certification: University Place in Philadelphia, 10 Emery St. in Bethlehem, Pa., and Capitol Tower Complex.

“LEED v4, at its core, provides insight into the synergies within the building system, providing solutions for optimizing performance, and ultimately achieving better environmental, economic and social outcomes in our buildings,” said Scot Horst, senior vice president of LEED, USGBC.

“LEED v4 is the LEED of the future, where we challenge the marketplace to go further, to make the next great leap toward better, cleaner, healthier buildings where people live and work.”

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