Celebrating its 30th Anniversary in September 2023, USGBC released a transformative beta version of LEED v5 for existing buildings at the Greenbuild 2023 International Conference and Expo. This version, which will continue to evolve, brings the game-changing inclusion of optimizing indoor air quality (IAQ) for occupant health into the LEED certification standards.
The new release of the beta LEED v5 rating system for existing buildings outlines a data-driven approach to benchmarking and scoring for certification. Specifically, within the category of Environmental Quality, a building can now gain points for monitoring and managing IAQ for occupant health. To maintain or acquire the highest Gold or Platinum LEED rating, credits for health are now added to decarbonization, equity, and resiliency.
EQ LEED Goal
“To define occupant needs related to the indoor environment and ensure and sustain access to indoor, health-promoting features.”
- LEED v5 O+M, Indoor Environment Quality
Historically, IAQ has received less attention than outdoor air pollution. While COVID brought focus to airborne disease transmission indoors, understanding and managing the health impact of IAQ needs to go beyond quantifying exposure to airborne pollutants to addressing the holistic impact on human health. In fact, optimizing IAQ can significantly improve productivity and wellbeing of occupants.
In addition to monitoring IAQ, LEED v5 embraces the need to measure the quality of outdoor air as part of an overall ventilation strategy. Historic norms have assumed that outdoor air ventilation ameliorates potential contaminants in indoor environments when, in fact, poor outdoor air quality can exacerbate harmful conditions.
Environment Quality (EQ) - The Value of B4H for Occupant Health
LEED v5 now provides opportunities to collect points for steps to support occupant health. These points include health assessments, comprehensive monitoring of indoor and outdoor air compounds and the efficient management of IAQ.
B4H solution can guide your project to add as many as 37 LEED points:
__21__ points for indoor and outdoor air monitoring
___5__ points for occupant health needs assessment
___2__ points for green cleaning strategies that reduce harm from chemicals
___9 _ points to address social equity through public health priorities
What is the Building4Health, Human-Centered IAQ Solution?
Protecting the health of occupants through optimizing IAQ in the most energy efficient way is exactly the value-add of the B4H platform.
Our unique medical approach, based on scientific research, uses our patented technology to measure and analyze the health impact of individual and interacting air constituents. The resulting data-driven remediation recommendations help improve indoor air in real-time AND reduce unnecessary building energy use.
How B4H Can Help You Achieve LEED Credits
B4H is more than an IAQ monitoring system; it includes a patented diagnostic technology and platform centered on occupant health that can help you gain valuable points across four credit categories of LEED v5. See the chart below for point opportunities that B4H can help you achieve.
Learn more about Building4Health.