LEED Specific Courses By Newest

LEED v5 puts carbon at the front of the design process. Before a project can pursue a single credit, it must complete a Carbon Assessment—and that assessment can fundamentally change design decisions. This course breaks down the Carbon Assessment prerequisite, the requirements that feed it, and how to use the results to identify the biggest opportunities for carbon reduction. Learn where carbon reductions have the greatest impact, how to bring carbon into early design conversations, and how to turn data into decisions that matter to owners, designers, and project teams.

Every building on the drawing board will operate for decades under changing energy prices, grid conditions, and carbon-related policies. LEED v5 responds by requiring projects to forecast operational carbon while the design can still change. This course breaks down the Operational Carbon Projection and Decarbonization Plan prerequisite—from energy modeling and carbon forecasts to building performance standards, potential compliance fees, and decarbonization strategies.

California is the fourth-largest economy in the world and is experiencing many of the impacts of climate change at the same time. Extreme heat events are occurring earlier in the year and lasting longer. Snowpack is declining, wildfire risk is increasing, and several of the nation’s most polluted metropolitan areas are here.
At the same time, many Californians face rising housing and energy costs, with electricity prices among the highest in the nation.

Measuring embodied carbon is now mandatory for LEED v5 projects. Reducing it is not. That gap is where this course begins. Meaningful reductions are available today using materials and methods already on the market. The challenge is turning those possibilities into project decisions—and making sure those reductions survive procurement and construction. This course breaks down the LEED v5 Reduce Embodied Carbon credit: all three achievement options, the reduction ladder, baseline requirements, whole-building impact categories, and documentation rules.

The impending climate crisis casts a looming shadow over our planet, and the responsibility to avert catastrophe falls upon us all. Design professionals can wield their creative powers to conceive sustainable, resilient, and regenerative solutions before it's too late. Diverting construction waste from landfills and promoting recycling, reuse, and responsible disposal practices can significantly contribute to reducing carbon emissions.

Whole building LCA and carbon analysis play a crucial role in promoting sustainable and low-carbon construction practices. By considering the entire life cycle of a building, these assessments help reduce environmental impacts and contribute to a more sustainable built environment. In this course we explore how project teams can use whole building LCA to reduce carbon for LEED v4.1 BD+C and ID+C projects.

In a world where climate change rages unchecked, the skies weep acid rain, monstrous storms destroy coastal cities, vibrant communities turn into desert wastelands, millions flee their homes, entire species go extinct, and ecosystems collapse. Renewable energy can play a vital role in addressing these challenges and mitigating the worst effects of climate change. In this course, we explore how renewable energy can help reduce carbon emissions for LEED v4.1 BD+C and ID+C projects and reduce environmental impacts.

Embodied carbon is the hidden impact embedded within construction materials and products and contributes significantly to our carbon footprint. By understanding the implications of your specification decisions, you possess the key to not only reducing embodied carbon, but also creating resilient and environmentally conscious structures. In this course, we explore how LEED v4.1 BD+C, ID+C, and O+M ratings systems address embodied carbon and help reduce environmental impacts.

Deadly hurricanes, blistering heatwaves, melting ice caps, massive crop failures, catastrophic droughts, and significant economic losses are the result of carbon emissions, specifically in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases. Addressing carbon emissions is crucial to mitigating these devastating effects. Design professionals play a critical role in mitigating carbon emissions through their design decisions and practices. In this course, we explore the LEED Zero certification program and how it can help fight climate change

Data centers are the most contested building type in America, and they are going up faster than the profession has figured out how to build them well. This course confronts what is actually driving the backlash: water drawn from regions that cannot spare it, grid costs landing on ordinary ratepayers, and a financing structure that may not survive the decade.

This course provides a comprehensive overview of steel, including its production process, historical development, and role as a foundational material in modern construction. It covers how steel is made, as well as how manufacturing advances improved efficiency, consistency, and global use over time. A key focus is steel’s recyclability and life cycle. The course examines steel as the most recycled material on Earth. It also explores life cycle thinking and how steel supports circular economy principles that reduce environmental impact in construction.

Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certification has been a leading driver of global forest conservation since 1994, and the green building movement is a cornerstone of its success. The US Green Building Council’s LEED rating system and the designers, specifiers and builders who apply LEED standards play a critical role, as doing so rewards and promotes forest conservation. Other FSC market drivers, such as Living Building Challenge, and high volume purchasing by major retailers all work together to expand the marketplace and make finding FSC building products easier.

Buildings outlive the climates they were designed for — and people are dying because of it. LEED v5 doesn't treat resilience as a bonus feature; it makes it a prerequisite. From mandatory climate hazard assessments to envelopes engineered to keep occupants alive when the grid collapses, this framework forces the building industry to reckon with a brutal truth: in an era of megadroughts, supercharged storms, and record-breaking heat, a building that can't protect its occupants isn't sustainable — it's a liability.

The land beneath our buildings tells a story of disrupted ecosystems, rising temperatures, and communities bearing the weight of inequitable development. LEED v5 Sustainable Sites gives design professionals the framework to write a different one, where buildings restore habitat, manage water responsibly, cool overheated neighborhoods, and create spaces where people and wildlife thrive.

What if the biggest carbon problem in your next building project has nothing to do with energy bills? The construction industry has spent decades obsessing over operational efficiency — better HVAC, tighter envelopes, smarter controls. But a quiet revolution is underway, and it starts before a single occupant flips a light switch. LEED v5 has fundamentally rewritten the rules on building materials, and the stakes couldn't be higher: the stuff we build with — concrete, steel, glass, flooring, furniture — is responsible for significant amounts of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Discover how the world's most efficient pollinators can transform your sustainable design projects. This course explores the fascinating intersection of bee ecology and green building, revealing practical strategies for architects and design professionals to integrate pollinator habitats into LEED certified projects. Learn how bees can help your projects while delivering measurable environmental, social, and economic benefits.

As cities evolve toward more sustainable and health-conscious design, architects play a pivotal role in shaping the infrastructure that supports active transportation. This course explores the intersection of architecture, mobility, and sustainability through the lens of bicycle parking design, from municipal standards to the growing demand for secure storage in both public and private, indoor and outdoor environments.

Ready to revolutionize your insulation specifications? Spray foam technology is reshaping how we achieve energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and sustainability in commercial construction. This comprehensive course demystifies open-cell versus closed-cell systems, showing you exactly where each excels in real-world applications. You'll unlock the secrets to maximizing LEED v4.1 design strategies through spray foam specification—from energy performance and low-VOC emissions.