LEED v4 tops 1,000 projects in Canada
November 21, 2019
By CCE
Image by CaGBC.
The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) is celebrating a new milestone as the total number of Canadian project registrations for the fourth version of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification surpasses 1,000.
LEED is already the world’s most widely used green building program, reaching more than 160 countries and certifying more than 2.6 million sf of space per day. Canada represents its second-largest market, with more than 4,350 certifications overall, behind only the U.S.
Now, CaGBC reports, LEED v4 is experiencing a particularly strong uptake in Canada, partly because the revisions of v4.1 help contribute to national targets for reducing carbon emissions.
“In v4.1, we are shifting to performance management and recertification to ensure buildings live up to their potential from an environmental perspective,” says Thomas Mueller, CaGBC’s president and CEO.
Of the 1,000-plus Canadian LEED v4 projects, 27% are in Ontario, followed by 17% in British Columbia and 15% in Alberta. Nearly half are commercial and institutional new construction, while early adoption of v4 in Quebec has resulted in 74% of residential projects coming from that province.
Existing buildings, meanwhile, account for roughly 25% of all LEED v4 projects, with streamlined documentation requirements tied to facility performance helping to drive uptake across more markets and classes of buildings. Large commercial owners are using LEED v4.1 operations and maintenance (O+M) to help speed up the recertification process.
