Children鈥檚 Healthcare of Atlanta Center for Advanced Pediatrics | LEED Gold | Photo: Children鈥檚 Healthcare of Atlanta
LEED for Building Design and Construction
LEED for Building Design and Construction (LEED BD+C) provides a framework for building a holistic green building, giving you the chance to nail down every sustainability feature, maximizing the benefits.
A LEED for every project
LEED BD+C has options to fit every project. Use a specialty option for unique needs or use New Construction and Major Renovations for everything else.
- New Construction and Major Renovation. Addresses design and construction activities for both new buildings and major renovations of existing buildings that do not primarily serve the uses below. (Teams using LEED v4 may also use this option for multifamily residential projects of four or more occupiable stories above grade).
- Core and Shell Development. For projects where the developer controls the design and construction of the entire mechanical, electrical, plumbing聽and fire protection system but not the design and construction of the tenant fit-out.
- Data Centers. Specifically designed and equipped to meet the needs of high-density computing equipment, such as server racks, used for data storage and processing.
- Healthcare. For hospitals that operate twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and provide ipatient medical treatment, including acute and long-term care.
- Hospitality. Dedicated to hotels, motels, inns聽or other businesses within the service industry that provide transitional or short-term lodging with or without food.
- Retail. Addresses the unique needs of retailers鈥攆rom banks, restaurants, apparel, electronics, big box and everything in between.
- Schools. For buildings made up of core and ancillary learning spaces on K-12 school grounds. Can also be used for higher education and non-academic buildings on school campuses.
- Warehouses and Distribution Centers. For buildings used to store goods, manufactured products, merchandise, raw materials聽or personal belongings, like self-storage.
LEED also works for existing buildings and interior spaces, homes, communities and cities.聽
How certification works
For projects in progress
There are a number of tools and resources available to support you when working on your LEED project including:
For new projects
- Choose your rating system. For the new construction of whole buildings, start by finding the option that best fits your project by exploring the BD+C offerings. For residential projects (both sing family and multifamily) review the options specific to that sector. View the full list of LEED v4.1 rating systems or view the full list of LEED v4 rating systems. There are also Certification models for multiple buildings and options for federal building projects.
- Check the requirements and options. Minimum Program Requirements (MPRs) are the basic requirements that let you know if your project can pursue LEED. LEED credits allow project teams to customize how they pursue LEED. By fulfilling credits, project teams earn points that, once added together, determine a project鈥檚 certification level. Learn more about LEED prerequisites and credits or access the LEED credit library.
- Deadlines. At any given time, a LEED rating system is either open for registration and certification, closed for registration but open for certification or sunset (closed for both registration and certification). View the deadlines to make sure you know the status of your desired rating system/version.
- Fees. View the fees table to find the LEED registration and certification costs.
- Build your team. Goals and roles are key elements to consider when starting any project and it's no different in LEED. There could be several people who are members of the project team. Learn more in the Guide to Certification for your selected project type.
- Register your project in and follow the steps in the Guide to Certification for your project type.