The U.S. Green Building Council is preparing for the first time to require all new buildings that it certifies as sustainable to consider the potential impacts of flooding, rising seas, wildfires and other risks likely to increase as global temperatures rise.
The nonprofit group, which oversees the influential Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, is also considering measures to award building developers for improving the climate resiliency of new LEED-certified projects.
The changes would represent a major shift in how a system incentivized by hundreds of federal, state and local government agencies considers sustainable design in a hotter and more dangerous world. The proposed overhaul was unveiled last week and is expected to be finalized early next year.
“The U.S. Green Building Council can really spur on the creation of new more resilient commercial structures,” Samuel Brody, the director of Texas A&M University’s Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas, said of the proposed overhaul. “So I’m positive on it.”
The LEED system issues points to developers for making certain sustainability improvements to buildings, such as installing electric vehicle charging stations and biking facilities. There are four award levels in the system that often correspond to both escalating sustainable achievements and tax subsidies: certified, silver, gold and platinum. The Green Building Council issued its three-leaved LEED seals to more than 6,000 commercial projects worldwide in 2023.
But last September, an analysis led by POLITICO’s E&E News found that the Green Building Council had granted LEED certifications to more than 800 new buildings in the past decade that have up to a 50 percent chance every year of flood waters reaching at least their lowest point. That tally of imperiled structures included several buildings that had already been damaged by floods, such as a museum in North Carolina, a library in Kentucky and the main offices of oil company ConocoPhillips in Houston.
The proposed changes would require building developers who are seeking LEED certification to “identify observed, projected, and future natural hazards and assess relevant effects to the project site and building function.” The mandatory so-called climate resilience assessment would also order, when relevant, the consideration of earthquakes, tornadoes and other hazards not directly related to increasing global temperatures.
The draft update also includes several new points for improving a building’s resiliency. For instance, developers could earn 2 points — out of around 100 possible points — for taking additional steps to protect buildings and their operations from being inundated by floodwaters.
The public has until May 20 to offer the Green Building Council feedback on the proposed revisions, which would also affect projects seeking LEED certifications for building renovations, interior designs or operations.
