US Green Building Council Launches Global Economic Recovery Strategy

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Today, the US Green Building Council (USGBC) announced a new strategy intended to leverage LEED — and the communities implementing the rating system — to support buildings and neighborhoods in a post-pandemic world.

The strategy, published as "Healthy People in Healthy Places Equals a Healthy Economy," promotes the idea that prioritizing the health of people, communities, and the planet is the fastest way to rebuild a healthier, more sustainable economy. USGBC is launching emergency guidance and upgrades to the LEED green building program to ensure that it reflects the realities that buildings, and more importantly, the people inside them, will face in the near future.

USGBC has defined global best practices for designing, constructing, and operating sustainable buildings and spaces through LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. LEED promotes the use of strategies that reduce environmental impact, enhance human health, and support economic development.

Under the new initiative, USGBC will update current LEED strategies in LEED v4.1 that support indoor environmental quality, cleaning, occupant comfort, operations, better materials, and risk management, while finding opportunities to introduce new approaches given the current public health crisis. USGBC will also take the following actions:

1. Introduce new LEED strategies: In the next two weeks, LEED will launch new pilot credits to support social distancing, nontoxic surface cleaning, air quality, and infection monitoring.
2. Form CEO Advisory Councils: USGBC will form Regional CEO Advisory Councils to advise and support USGBC's CEO on how the organization, its programs, and the building and construction industries can prioritize sustainability in a post-pandemic world.
3. Accelerate USGBC Equity: USGBC will accelerate the implementation of its USGBC Equity program to better address the social, health, and economic disparities within communities.
4. Call for ideas: USGBC will launch a call for ideas next week to hear perspectives from the broader market on how LEED and healthy spaces can evolve given the current public health crisis.
5. Adapted review process: GBCI, the certifying body for LEED and other green business certification programs, will amend its LEED review process immediately to incorporate the lessons learned over the last two months from covid-19, to ensure projects that are currently undergoing LEED certification can dynamically transition and make their spaces healthier. Guidance will be published this week.
6. Guidance reports: USGBC will publish a series of best practice guidance reports to help project teams assist their occupants as they re-enter their spaces.

USGBC says that refining LEED strategies and providing guidance that clearly communicates the economic, health, and environmental benefits of sustainable buildings, communities and cities to people — especially during this time of uncertainty — will be a priority.