From Vision to Action:

USGBC Advancing
Building Decarbonization

March 2024
From Vision to Action: USGBC Advancing Building Decarbonization | 1
Scientists have spelled out the global climate challenge loud and clear: We must cut our global carbon
emissions by at least 50% by 2030 to stave off the worst impacts of global warming. As signs of climate
change are increasingly evident around the globe, it is impossible to ignore—and governments and
corporations are committing to reducing emissions.

“The whole planet has identified decarbonization as a priority.”

—Anica Landreneau, Chair, LEED Steering Committee
Global Director, Sustainable Design and Consulting, HOK

Decarbonization has become a shorthand term for removing

the production of greenhouse gases, predominantly carbon THE TOP 10 COUNTRIES
dioxide, from the global economy. Buildings are a critical sector to FOR LEED IN 2023
address—and after decades of advocacy by the U.S. Green Building
Council (USGBC) and others, buildings are now recognized for 1. Mainland China
being both a climate problem and a solution. Indeed, buildings 2. Canada
comprise about one-third of global energy-based emissions; that
3. India
proportion grows when you include construction, materials and
emissions related to water and waste. 4. Turkey
5. Brazil
With developments in building science and technology, new
buildings are now much more efficient than they were 30 years 6. Saudi Arabia
ago. Every day, we see more net zero energy and low-carbon 7. Spain
buildings. With global demand for building space still growing to 8. Italy
meet populations, though, building sector emissions could go in
the wrong direction and grow, rather than coming down to meet its 9. South Korea
share of climate needs. 10. Mexico

In this context, the Buildings Breakthrough was launched at COP This annual ranking
28 to collaborate in moving toward the vision of worldwide near- highlights countries and
zero-emission and resilient buildings. This resonates with USGBC, regions outside the United
as we have been working for our entire 30-year history to show States that are making
how partnership and collaboration can work to support shared significant strides in
climate, health and resilience goals. sustainable building design,
construction and operations.
The question today is: How do we scale and ensure rapid adoption
of proven practices to reduce buildings’ whole life carbon impact?

At USGBC, we are bringing all our tools and resources to meet this challenge. Our newly released 2024–
2026 strategic plan underscores the priority we are placing on climate action—and our leveraging of our
unique role to make change happen. USGBC brings together diverse decision makers in the buildings
industry: an array of public and private entities including architects and engineers, building developers,
owners, tenants, operators, product manufacturers, and professionals in the finance and insurance, retail,
hospitality and government sectors at all levels. The common thread is a motivation to do better.

From Vision to Action: USGBC Advancing Building Decarbonization | 2

Our strategic plan leads to the ultimate objective
of market transformation at scale, through USGBC has adopted the definition of
effective programs built on proven strategies that resilience established by the National
will enable a much broader swath of the building Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:
industry and related sectors to take immediate “the ability to prepare and plan for, absorb,
steps toward their goals. We are excited to share recover from, and more successfully adapt to
this report on what we’re doing to make change adverse events.” This definition encompasses
happen. various aspects of building performance,
from ensuring business continuity during
disruptions and disturbances to responding
effectively during emergencies.
Core strategies in LEED v5 recognizes that readiness and
a whole life carbon adaptation are critical and rewards

approach operational preparedness for extreme events:

• O+M: Helps projects understand who is

Whole life carbon (WLC) is defined as the entire
in the building and meets occupant needs
amount of greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide
with a health-centric approach, including
equivalent) emissions caused by a building. It
identifying health resilience goals.
is composed of two main sources of emissions:
operational and embodied. Operational carbon • O+M: Requires all projects to conduct
emissions are related to the building’s operation, an assessment for climate resilience and
including energy use for heating, cooling, rewards proactive establishment of a plan
ventilation, lighting, cooking and plug loads, as well for responding to present and potential
as water use and refrigerant leakage. Embodied future hazards that could affect the project
carbon emissions are those that occur from site and/or building function.
the extraction, manufacturing, transportation,
installation, maintenance and disposal of building • BD+C: Is being developed to promote
materials. proactive evaluation of, and preparation
for, the changing climate and the risks
The term building decarbonization is sometimes posed by shocks and stressors. Credits are
used in reference to operational emissions only. anticipated to promote resilience strategies
With embodied carbon representing at least in site design, envelope and infrastructure
25% and as much as 75% of a building’s life design, and ventilation system design.
cycle carbon, attention is increasingly being paid
to ensuring that decarbonization addresses all
phases. This comprehensive decarbonization is
referred to as the whole life carbon approach.

Building decarbonization starts with well-insulated and -sealed envelopes and high efficiency systems to
reduce energy needs, and then meets those needs with low-carbon sources (such as renewable energy)
from on-site, grid or purchase. Buildings can further reduce operational carbon with grid integration and
demand response, smart technology, and energy and thermal storage, as well as by reducing indoor and
outdoor water needs and all forms of waste.

Decarbonizing buildings also means addressing the embodied carbon in materials, including initial
construction and renovations, plus emissions from construction site activity and equipment. For example,
buildings can reduce the embodied emissions of building materials such as concrete and steel, which
require large amounts of energy to produce.

From Vision to Action: USGBC Advancing Building Decarbonization | 3

Together, the core strategies of efficiency, electrification, clean power, building-grid integration and
embodied carbon reduction implement a WLC approach.

The urgency of scaling improvements across all

existing buildings
“There’s the entire built environment to consider, and all of it are pieces to the puzzle.”
—Sean McMahon, Vice President, Product Management, USGBC

We can’t meet our urgent climate goals without addressing existing buildings as well as new ones.
Consider this: With proven decarbonization strategies becoming available and cost-competitive,
commercial buildings in the U.S. have become 37% less carbon-intensive and 26% more energy-efficient
on average, according to USGBC’s report “State of Decarbonization: Progress in U.S. Commercial
Buildings 2023.” However, despite these significant reductions, overall sector emissions of commercial
buildings have remained flat since 1990, a result of significant increases in total building floor area.

The progress is a sign that we can make improvements, but we must make measurable and significant
progress on an absolute basis. In developed countries, that means getting serious about existing building
retrofits. They are not all going to be exemplary green buildings—but they can all deeply decarbonize.

“There’s the entire built environment to consider, and all

In 2018, USGBC introduced LEED
of it are pieces to the puzzle,” says Sean McMahon, vice
Zero. This program certifies LEED
president of product management at USGBC, who has
buildings that have achieved net zero
spent the past year developing a program that supports
operations in any of four categories:
building energy performance at the portfolio level. “While
energy, water, carbon and waste.
LEED has been our primary vehicle to advance the mission,
LEED Zero Carbon encourages
there’s a lot of room for us to leverage the infrastructure,
projects to focus on operational
capacity and expertise that we’ve built as an organization
carbon reduction and renewable
over the last 30 years,” he says.
energy use.

A recipe for ultra-low- In 2023, an updated version of

LEED Zero Carbon was released
carbon buildings in draft alongside the LEED v5 for
Operations and Maintenance (O+M)
USGBC has been engaged in developing a new version of draft and beta. Requirements within
LEED to address three critical system goals: climate action, this update specify no operational
quality of life, and ecological conservation and restoration, GHG emissions through efficiency,
with 50% of points dedicated to climate action. “In electrification and clean power, and
LEED v5, we’ve laid out principles for the future of LEED, mandate refrigerant management,
including decarbonizing fairly aggressively,” says Melissa sustainable transportation measures
Baker, senior vice president at USGBC. “We’ve addressed it and embodied carbon renovation
for many years, but now it’s front and center.” policies, to help the industry coalesce
This effort involves approximately 100 subject matter impactful strategies.
experts who volunteer and serve on our LEED technical
committees and steering committees. USGBC also created two new working groups, on equity and
resilience, which are informing the rating system development across all subject areas. These market
leaders have put in thousands of hours to research, share, design and debate how we can evolve the LEED
program to create the impact we need.
From Vision to Action: USGBC Advancing Building Decarbonization | 4
LEED v5 projects will be prompted to curb carbon emissions from all major sources of greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions in buildings: operational emissions from energy used to operate buildings; embodied
carbon emissions from materials used in the construction and renovation of buildings, as well as waste
generated throughout building construction, operation and renovation; and carbon emissions related to
transportation to and from a building. Strategies include more obvious and less obvious methods, from
going all-electric for heating and cooling systems to disposing of refrigerants in old HVAC systems safely.

“There are two big steps: First, electrify your building—stop burning fossil fuel on-site,” says Laurie Kerr,
principal climate advisor at USGBC. “Second, buildings must reduce their peak heating and cooling loads,
because that’s going to drive the size of the power grid.”

Another reason to take action: There is more financial help available. In the U.S., the landmark Inflation
Reduction Act provides funding to help decarbonize buildings, including incentives and rebates for
energy efficiency upgrades to new and existing buildings, plus incentives for on-site renewables, energy
storage, microgrids and EV charging infrastructure. It also includes the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas
Reduction Fund, which unlocks funds for energy retrofits. Listen to USGBC’s podcast with the U.S. EPA’s
Ted Toon.

“There are two big steps: first, electrify your building—stop burning fossil fuel on-site.
Second, buildings must reduce their peak heating and cooling loads, because that’s
going to drive the size of the power grid.”

—Laurie Kerr, Principal Climate Advisor, USGBC

From Vision to Action: USGBC Advancing Building Decarbonization | 5

Connecting strategies from new buildings to
existing ones
The only way to meet the 2030 challenge set by the Paris Agreement is to tackle our existing buildings,
which collectively account for 30% of global carbon emissions.

“This version of LEED has to work for owners of existing buildings,” says Landreneau. With the overarching
goal of getting more buildings on the road to lower carbon, buildings will no longer have to meet certain
performance standards, such as Energy Star or ASHRAE 62.2, right away.

Instead, building owners will be prompted to conduct assessments for their carbon trajectory, climate
resilience and occupant needs. The LEED v5 for O+M rating system rewards energy performance and
the development of a decarbonization plan by thinking through building energy usage and sources and
installing energy monitors, among other steps.

While LEED v5 meets existing buildings where they are and pushes them ahead, it also provides a
recipe for building them right the first time. LEED v5 for Building Design and Construction (BD+C) will
likely require more advanced steps for decarbonization, particularly at the higher levels of certification,
including electrification, load reduction, grid interoperability and carbon neutrality, says Landreneau.

LEED v5 O+M also introduces a prerequisite that requires safe management and disposal of legacy
refrigerants and provides credit for observing global warming potential (GWP) limits for new refrigerants,
which are used in heating and cooling systems; many are potent greenhouse gases that can leak into
the atmosphere without proper planning for safe disposal. LEED BD+C incorporates GWP limits into the
prerequisite.

Cutting down embodied energy will have more weight in LEED v5 than it has in the past, with the
introduction of an embodied carbon prerequisite into LEED BD+C and considerable emphasis on planning
for circularity, existing building reuse and waste diversion in both LEED BD+C and LEED O+M.

LEED v5 O+M WILL INCREASE THE CARBON LITERACY OF THE INDUSTRY BY

• Providing all buildings with an operational greenhouse gas emissions projection of their business-
as-usual operational emissions through 2050.
• Rewarding decarbonization planning first, then within the context of planning, helping projects to
establish a road map for the most effective steps toward decarbonization.
• Recognizing the need to expand the conversation to address sources of building emissions more
holistically.
+ Refrigerant emissions—Requiring teams to track and report refrigerant leaks, encouraging
routine maintenance of refrigerant-containing equipment, and calling for newly installed
refrigerants to meet low GWP requirements.
+ Embodied carbon emissions—Promoting consideration of the embodied carbon emissions
associated with renovation materials and encouraging project teams to integrate materials/
products that are closed-loop or participate in manufacturer take-back programs.
• Expanding the conversation beyond the traditional audiences to involve other essential parties and
perspectives (e.g., financial decision-makers, operators and occupants).

From Vision to Action: USGBC Advancing Building Decarbonization | 6

Addressing the complexities of cutting embodied
carbon
LEED v5 demands that projects perform on operational carbon, since that
continues to be the largest source of a building’s emissions. “In America,
operational carbon is roughly five times the amount of embodied carbon,”
notes Kerr. “For now, operational carbon remains the dominant problem from
the building side.” Based on available data, in the U.S., embodied carbon
represents 6% of U.S. total carbon emissions.

LEED v5 gives embodied carbon in buildings the attention it deserves and

prepares the ground for deeper cuts going forward. For building renovations,
that means bonus points for reusing rather than buying new. “The credits
will emphasize reuse of the most carbon-impactful products and materials,
such as structural materials like concrete and steel, as well as finishes that
have a lot of embodied carbon, like carpet,” says Wes Sullens, a LEED director at USGBC who focuses on
materials and resources.

Whole building reuse, including office-to-housing conversions, will also get credit for heavy lifting. “You
don’t have to build a new building from scratch to be eligible for LEED Gold or Platinum certification,”
notes Landreneau. “You can take that existing building, focus on aspects such as decarbonization,
resiliency, human health and well-being, and you can get that green building label.” Meanwhile, new
buildings designed to reduce embodied carbon through a life cycle assessment will see a bump in points.

To address the carbon emissions that exist in a company’s supply chain (scope 3 emissions), LEED v5 will
begin rewarding projects for specifying materials and finishes with less embodied carbon.

“We’ve been asking manufacturers to provide information about embodied carbon for the last 10 years,
and now we know what the range is, so you can switch to those with less,” says Sullens. “The low-hanging
fruit is to use lower-carbon-emissions concrete and steel with the highest percentage possible of recycled
content—and, very importantly, not to overengineer your building to begin with.”

As previous versions of LEED have done, LEED v5 will continue to advance and promote a holistic
approach to sustainability. “In terms of points, decarbonization accounts for about half, a quarter is
human health, and another quarter is ecology and biodiversity,” says Landreneau. “Equity and resilience
are a common throughline.”

As we continue to face the consequences of climate change, the integration of resilience into building
design and management is essential to saving lives and averting severe economic loss. Supporting a built
environment that is not only environmentally responsible, but also resilient in the face of an uncertain
climate future, is a critical component of USGBC’s mission.

From Vision to Action: USGBC Advancing Building Decarbonization | 7

Promoting accountability for entire building
portfolios
Setting sustainability targets has become more pressing for the corporate world and governments with
the rise of ESG reporting, now mandatory for those doing business in the European Union. In addition
to financial disclosures, investment risk analysis and shareholder reports, many institutions have made
declarations to become net zero. As a recent report from Net Zero Tracker has found, though, those
ambitions often are not backed by a robust plan. To ensure accountability and results, there is a clear
need for programs that track and verify legitimate progress toward decarbonization.

USGBC has invested significant resources to solving the scale problem. We conducted countless
interviews to understand the drivers—and lack of drivers—in the market today. We looked at the tools and
data available, to understand the gaps, and we leveraged our data and our sustainability platform, Arc, to
stand up a pilot program.

This exclusive group of eight organizations represented over 140 million square feet across five
countries and 20 U.S. states. They included privately held and publicly traded organizations representing
multifamily, hotel, commercial office, local government and warehouse portfolios across the U.S., India,
U.K., Canada and Mexico. Through the pilot, we identified pain points that arise are when a company or
government decides to tackle its real estate portfolio emissions and identify a variety of ways to address
planning and implementation.

This is now translating into offering new tools for portfolios, including those that are not yet actively
engaged in green building certification programs. The program launching later this year is designed to
guide and support continuous improvement, verify performance outcomes of real estate portfolios, and
demonstrate progress across portfolio-level sustainability and resilience goals.

Leveraging their deep expertise in verifying sustainability achievements, USGBC and GBCI will unveil
this new tool at Greenbuild 2024, which will take place in November in Philadelphia. It will provide an
accurate measure of real estate portfolio performance, based on a well-defined set of metrics, including
decarbonization.

“What’s missing from a lot of organizations’ commitments are the tangible steps and measurable
improvements,” says Jeff Benavides, director of performance at scale and portfolios at USGBC. “We can
help them quantify those and verify they are actually doing what they claim.” Using this tool, corporations,
government entities and nonprofit organizations alike can add substance to their action plans, create
custom targets and verify portfolio-level performance. In the holistic spirit of LEED, it will track
decarbonization, along with a wide range of environmental and human impacts.

This program will offer an end-to-end solution for organizations to identify, plan and prioritize actions
across diverse portfolios. It facilitates the tracking and measurement of progress against custom
performance goals, leveraging data, analytics and tools. The inclusion of third party review and
verification by GBCI ensures credibility and compliance with sustainable real estate standards.

The program aims to provide universal, scalable solutions that will be applied to buildings at any stage
and condition, empowering organizations to drive action and accountability across their real estate
portfolios. By doing so, it supports the achievement and verification of organizational decarbonization
commitments and increases the number of buildings poised for green building leadership certification.

From Vision to Action: USGBC Advancing Building Decarbonization | 8

Many solutions working together to solve the
decarbonization problem
Investor Ready Energy Efficiency (IREE), a program designed to meet an assurance gap in efficiency
programs, provides third party verification that a potential energy efficiency retrofit of a commercial or
multifamily building will indeed deliver the anticipated energy savings and carbon emission reductions.
Banks and other investors can thus loan money for these kinds of projects with greater confidence,
knowing that they will deliver substantial savings and cut carbon emissions.

By lowering risk and transaction costs, IREE is helping enable greater investments in energy efficiency
retrofits, which can result in savings of 30–50% in energy costs, according to the Department of Energy.
The tool has already proven itself in the field: IREE is currently in use by Pacific Gas and Electric and by
the Canadian government to evaluate potential projects for $3 billion in green loans.

The LEED for Cities and Communities rating system tackles carbon reduction through many of its
goals for sustainable urban development, infrastructure and transportation. Local governments are
encouraged to adopt policies that promote energy efficiency, renewable energy and overall environmental
sustainability; plus, it emphasizes community engagement and use of data to make the best decisions.

In addition, USGBC has other programs for specific infrastructure that emphasize decarbonization along
with biodiversity and ecosystem restoration, resilience and other desirable impacts, taking advantage
of the unique levers that each offers. These include SITES for sustainable landscape projects, PEER for
optimizing the efficiency and reliability of utility companies and power systems of all sizes, and TRUE, a
certification program for zero waste achievements.

“There are the buildings, but then there’s the land that they sit on, the power
systems that support them, and the materials and resources that go into and come
out of the buildings. The suite of tools that we offer address the sustainability and
decarbonization implications of all of those components.”

—Sean McMahon, Vice President, Product Management, USGBC

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Advocating for policies that support sustainable
building practices at the local, state and federal
levels
USGBC also makes change by engaging with policymakers and industry stakeholders. Through our policy
and advocacy, USGBC is creating an environment that drives decarbonization and is conducive to green
building practices by

• Advocating for the adoption and

implementation of more stringent energy In the United States, the White House and the
codes and standards at the local, state and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently
national levels. This includes supporting released a draft national definition for a
measures that require buildings to meet higher building with zero operational emissions.
energy efficiency criteria. The national definition is intended to serve
as a common framework for greater market
• Supporting policies that incentivize the use of alignment to move the building sector toward
renewable energy sources in buildings. zero emissions.
• Promoting policies that provide incentives The draft definition for operational emissions
for green building practices, such as LEED focuses on core strategies of efficiency,
certification. This may involve tax credits, electrification and clean energy; a future
expedited permitting processes, or other phase is expected to add embodied carbon,
benefits for developers and building owners refrigerants and grid integration. USGBC
who invest in sustainable and energy-efficient is working with the White House to provide
design and construction. feedback on the definition, and the intent
is for LEED v5 to align with the national
• Supporting policies encouraging the
definition.
electrification of buildings, particularly the
transition from fossil-fuel-based systems to
electric systems powered by renewable energy
sources.

• Promoting policies that incorporate resilience and adaptation strategies in building codes and
planning, ensuring that buildings are designed to withstand and recover from the impacts of climate
change while minimizing carbon-intensive reconstruction.

• Advocating for increased funding for support for innovative solutions that enhance energy efficiency
and reduce the carbon footprint of buildings. This includes recent U.S. federal bills, including the
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, which has been called the nation’s
largest climate change package in history.

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LEED PROJECT SPOTLIGHTS
LADWP John Ferraro Building
Los Angeles, California
LEED Gold | LEED Zero Energy
Project size: 843,940 gross square feet | 78,405 gross square meters

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

(LADWP) John Ferraro Building is the
headquarters for a third of LADWP’s 11,000
employees and houses the departments for
customer service and other major operations. The
17-story, all-electric building was initially
constructed in 1965.
In 2013, a suite of energy efficiency measures was
considered, giving rise to an aggressive energy
efficiency effort that included lighting retrofits,
chiller upgrade and fan system upgrades and
earned the building’s initial LEED certification
Photo: © Jann On
in 2015. The following year, the building was
recertified and achieved Gold-level certification.

De Paola & Panasolo Sociedade de Advogados

Curitiba, Brazil
LEED Platinum | LEED Zero Carbon | LEED Energy
Project size: 6,228 gross square feet | 579 gross square meters

Over a period of several years, De Paolo &

Panasolo, a Brazil-based law firm, developed a
strategic and detailed plan that transitioned the
organization to solely biodegradable cleaning
products, diverted nearly all the waste created
on-site from landfill through composting and
stringent recycling programs, installed solar
panels to generate its own renewable energy, and
neutralized its carbon footprint. In 2021, the firm
received a USGBC regional leadership award.
Photo: Ciclo Vivo/Reprodução

From Vision to Action: USGBC Advancing Building Decarbonization | 11

About USGBC
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recognizes the pivotal role of buildings in contributing to
carbon emissions and is committed to leading the charge in transformative initiatives. It stands poised to
be a catalyst for change in shaping a low-carbon, sustainable future for our buildings.

More than 30 years ago, USGBC was founded by a small group of individuals who believed in building a
more sustainable world. Over the next several decades, USGBC grew that idea into a global community of
leaders that transformed the design, construction and operation of buildings and communities to better
serve people, the planet and our climate. Today, USGBC represents thousands of organizations that have
delivered nearly 110,000 LEED-certified projects, representing the highest standard of sustainability in
more than 180 countries and territories globally.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
Ana Ka’ahanui (cover photos)
Lydia Lee (Interviews and content support)

From Vision to Action: USGBC Advancing Building Decarbonization | 12