What Changes In LEED v4.1 & When Will The LEED Exams Will Be Based On LEED v4.1?

Note: LEED v5 is now available! If you want to learn more about LEED v5, check out our new blog post: Everything You Need to Know About LEED v5.

LEED—the most widely used rating system in the world—is continuously evolving in order to raise the bar on the green building standards and to include the most current standards and real-world project experiences. LEED v4 was introduced at the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Philadelphia on November 20, 2013. And since then, there were many changes in the green building technologies as well as in the building standards. During that time frame,  U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) also collected valuable feedback from the projects that pursue LEED v4. And now with LEED v4.1, USGBC aims to reflect all those changes and incorporate the feedback they received with LEED v4.1, in order to make a bigger impact to enhancing building performance and reducing climate change.

What’s The Timeline For LEED v4.1?

The first rating system to be updated was the LEED Operations and Maintenance (LEED O+M) rating system and the registration for its beta version was opened on March 2018.

In January 2019, registration opened for the LEED Building Design + Construction (LEED BD+C) v4.1 and the LEED Interior Design + Construction (LEED ID+C) v4.1 beta rating systems. USGBC uses beta versions for a year or more to gather feedback from green building projects that pursue LEED v4.1 beta. With that feedback, USGBC finalizes and officially launches the rating system after the public commenting and approval phases.

When Will The LEED Exams Will Be Based On LEED v4.1?

People planning to take LEED exams are often curious about when the credentialing exams will be updated to a newer version.

The LEED credentialing exams like LEED Green Associate or LEED AP BD+C will continue to be based on LEED v4 until mid-2026, when they are expected to transition directly to LEED v5. LEED v4.1 will not be featured in any LEED exams. Once LEED v5 is finalized, USGBC will issue a notice about the date the exam version will change, and GBCI will update the LEED exams accordingly. During that time, USGBC will also update the LEED reference guides. After the exam version change notice, USGBC is expected to allow extra time (minimum 6 months) for candidates to continue taking the LEED v4 exam before the full transition.

To summarize, at this time candidates can confidently start studying for their LEED exam with the LEED v4 materials, as the LEED exams are based on this version. Our LEED Green Associate and LEED AP BD+C study tools are also based on LEED v4 as it is the version that the current LEED exams are based on.

What’s New in LEED v4.1?

LEED v4.1 can be seen as a critical update rather than a full version change. It references the newest standards and is more performance based. Some credits have been updated on the credit requirements in order to streamline the certification process. Some pilot credits from the LEED v4 ratings system have became actual credits in the newer rating system. And the performance thresholds of some credits have been updated to be more straightforward.

With the US based standards mostly present in the LEED requirements, international projects were having a harder time adapting. With LEED v4.1, there will be more options for the international projects.

We also see that approximately one-third of the LEED BD+C prerequisites and credits are not affected from the version change. In short, we can say that the newer version will be more performance based and is more focused on implementation.