Data Centers Under Fire: A LEED v5 Guide
GreenCE’s mission is to support the necessary transition to a sustainable built environment by empowering design professionals to address the environmental, economic, and social impacts of buildings. GreenCE’s course catalog includes LEED exam preparation, continuing education to maintain your AIA or LEED credential, as well as specialty education focused on topics such as ADA/Barrier-Free requirements. We are committed to designing the highest quality continuing education programs in the construction industry.
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. You will then work through the LEED v5 BD+C strategies that give design teams real leverage, from the new integrative process assessments and energy saving strategies to the water and carbon credits that determine what these buildings actually cost their communities. The decisions that separate a responsible facility from a reckless one get made in the first few months, often before anyone is paying attention, and right now those decisions are landing on desks like yours.
- Discuss the LEED v5 BD+C credits that contribute most to the sustainable design and construction of data centers
- Identify LEED v5 BD+C energy and water strategies that reduce consumption and mitigate community impact
- Explain the LEED v5 BD+C carbon strategies — operational carbon projection, electrification, renewable energy, and embodied carbon — and how each applies to a data center
- Summarize current metrics and policy developments, including water consumption, grid cost allocation, state and local regulation, and the debate over AI capital investment
