Revamped LEED v5 Credits Promote Responsible Materials Use

11/5/2025

The latest version of LEED v5 for Building Design and Construction (BD+C) rating system — incorporating BD+C: New Construction, BD+C: Core and Shell, and LEED for Interior Design and Construction (ID+C): Commercial Interiors — introduces and expands strategies to advance reuse and the management of materials from construction and demolition (C&D) activities. 

LEED v5 increases focus on circularity and the zero-waste hierarchy by offering more points to the most impactful and effective strategies, like reuse and source separation, while de-emphasizing commingled recycling. As a result, being successful in LEED v5 BD+C and ID+C will require facilities to change their business-as-usual practices into more targeted ones. Key strategies affected include: 

Reuse. To encourage the supply side of the reuse market equation, LEED v5 values diversion of salvaged material to off-site reuse at twice the diversion rate — 200 percent — of other diverted materials in Materials and Resources credit 5: Construction and Demolition Waste Diversion. 

Source separation. Separating recyclables by material type — steel, wood, drywall, etc. — on the jobsite and sending them to single-material recycling facilities counts as 100 percent diversion in LEED v5 BD+C and ID+C. The high level of material consistency and low levels of contamination associated with source-separated recycling leads to greater potential for meeting circularity goals. 

Commingled recycling. Responding to industry concerns about the accuracy of recovery rates for commingled recycling, LEED v5 BD+C rating systems now cap commingled construction and demolition recycling rates at 35 percent. If a project team wants to claim higher than 35 percent, this now requires third-party verification of diversion rates. 

Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.?