LEED v5 is now open for registration, and the materials credits look different than they did under v4.1. Here are just a few of the changes and what it means for your specs.

LEED v4.1 registration is still open (for now). USGBC has extended v4/v4.1 commercial registration through June 30, 2027, so teams aren’t forced into v5 yet. That said, v5 is open for registration and is clearly where the market is heading, so it’s worth understanding both systems before choosing which to register under.

One credit replaces several material disclosure credits. LEED v5 folds the former Building Product Disclosure and Optimization credits, which separately covered Environmental Product Declarations (EPD), Sourcing of Raw Materials, and Material Ingredients under v4.1, into a single consolidated credit: Building Product Selection and Procurement in the Materials and Resources category.

The 1x, 2x, 3x Multiplier System. The new credit uses a leveled, multi-attribute system: a product that achieves a first step toward sustainability for a criteria area earns a 1x multiplier, while a product demonstrating a leadership-level, optimized position earns a 2x multiplier, and elite-tier products earn 3x. LEED v5 rewards higher levels of verified environmental performance, so the quality and level of the documentation, not just its existence, determines how much value a product contributes.

What this means for EPDs specifically: Industry-average EPDs, including industry-wide gypsum board EPDs, continue to provide important transparency and benchmarking information. However, LEED v5 increasingly rewards product-specific environmental performance and verified improvement over baseline conditions, making product-specific EPDs more valuable for teams seeking higher achievement levels. Even so, the industry average remains the reference point many teams start from, which raises the stakes for keeping it current and well-documented. Industry-average EPDs, like the GA’s recently-released EPDs for ½” lightweight and ⅝” type X gypsum boards, continue to provide an important baseline for disclosure and comparison, making the quality and representativeness of those averages increasingly important.

Embodied carbon gets its own credit. Separate from the Building Product Selection & Procurement credit, LEED v5 introduces a Reduce Embodied Carbon credit that rewards projects for lowering embodied carbon through whole-building assessment and low-carbon material selection strategies. As project teams place greater emphasis on Global Warming Potential (GWP), EPD data for products such as gypsum board is likely to play a more prominent role in specification and procurement decisions.

Bottom line for spec writers: confirm which LEED version your project is registering under as v4.1 remains available through June 30, 2027. If it’s v5, update your submittal language to reflect the consolidated credit structure. Don’t assume an EPD alone secures full points; ask what level of verified performance it demonstrates.

A summary of changes provided by the U.S. Green Building Council can be found here.