LEED AP BD+C

ABOUT LEED BD+C CERTIFICATION & CREDENTIALS

LEED BD+C is the most popular LEED rating system and specialty AP credential. LEED BD+C is most similar to the original “legacy” LEED AP designation and stands for “Building Design and Construction”. As the name implies, this LEED rating system and AP credential are for professionals involved in the design and new construction (or major remodeling) of green buildings.

In summary, LEED BD+C looks to achieve:

Short and long-term cost-effectiveness
A holistic, integrated design process in place of traditional fragmentation
Measurable, optimal levels of building, human and environmental performance

The LEED BD+C building certification and professional credentials are overseen by the Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), which is the credentialing subsidiary of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

LEED BD+C BUILDING CERTIFICATION

Constructing building with high crane under clear sky depicting an example of a LEED BD+C (LEED Building Design and Construction) building

BD+C is appropriate for numerous project types.

LEED v4.1 includes BD+C rating systems for categories including:

New Construction & Major Renovation
Core and Shell (Instances where tenants will further outfit their individual spaces)
Schools
Distribution Centers & Warehouses
Full-Spectrum Retail (Including showroom space and storage areas)
Hospitality (lodging, with or without food)
Data Centers (60%+ of the building needs to be data center for BD+C)
Hospitals & Healthcare Facilities
Multi-family Residential

LEED BD+C updates the traditional process where design and construction activities operate independently from one another. In LEED, Integrative teams collectively find solutions to challenges that benefit one another rather than create unintended consequences for other members of the design and construction teams working on the project. This web of communication, planning, and cooperation between project teams of disparate building systems is unconventional from the silos in which most teams traditionally operate. The result of this symbiotic approach to design and construction is an efficient building that improves the lives of its occupants and reduces its impact on the environment both today and tomorrow.

LEED BD+C uses three phases:

Discovery- the crucial predesign process which integrates teams and ensures goals will be met
Implementation (Design & Construction)- this step will be familiar in nature to conventional processes but applies the learnings and considerations of the integrative discovery phase
Performance Feedback- this final phase ensures measurement and feedback loops are in place so performance can be compared to targets. Any necessary modifications can be quickly addressed