How Demolition Contributes to LEED Certification
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is the world’s most widely used and recognized certification system for sustainable buildings and construction practices.
When was LEED First Developed?
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) developed the LEED certification system. Founded in 1993 by members of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), along with more than 60 firms and non-profit organizations, the USGBC was created to advance sustainable development through green building practices.
In 1998, the USGBC introduced the first iteration of LEED, launching a pilot program across 19 properties. By March 2000, LEED was made publicly available. Since then, the system has evolved through six versions and is now the most widely recognized green building certification in the world—adopted in 186 countries, with over 190,000 certified projects to date.
Why does LEED Certification Matter?
Sustainable building practices are a core priority across the construction industry. While demolition is only one component of the LEED process, it is a foundational step toward meeting certification requirements. With new innovations, greener buildings can now support cleaner environments, reduce energy consumption, and lower long-term operating costs. LEED certification plays a key role by ensuring that projects address critical issues such as climate change, carbon reduction, and meet ESG targets.
How does your project become LEED Certified, and how can we help?
To achieve LEED certification, projects must meet a set of prerequisite criteria and earn a minimum of 40 points on the LEED scorecard by implementing approved sustainability measures across several categories. These include: Integrative Process (IP), Location & Transportation (LT), Sustainable Sites (SS), Water Efficiency (WE), Energy and Atmosphere (EA), Materials and Resources (MR), Indoor Environmental Quality (EQ), Innovation, and Regional Priority (RP).
LEED reviews take place throughout the full project lifecycle. At Priestly Demolition, we submit and review monthly reports with our clients to ensure demolition progress remains aligned with certification targets. Once a project is complete, all documentation is finalized, reviewed with all trades, and credits are then awarded based on the verified results.
What are the levels of LEED Certification?
Earning all the required credits and reaching 40 credits (out of a possible 110 points) will make your project LEED Certified. There are four levels to the LEED certification. Each level requires a certain number of credits.
1. LEED Certified
Required credits plus a score between 40-49 credits.
2. Silver Certification
Required credits plus a score between 50-59 credits.
3. Gold Certification
Required credits plus a score between 60-79 credits.
4. Platinum Certification
Required credits plus a score between 80-110 credits.
What projects qualify for LEED Certification?
There are five types of projects that qualify for LEED Certification.
Build Design and Construction projects (LEED BD+C) – New construction & major renovations for office buildings, retail centers, schools, hospitals, industrial facilities, and residential towers such as apartments.
Residential (LEED for Homes) –Single-family homes, townhouses, low-rise multi-unit buildings.
Interior Design and Construction (LEED ID+C) – Renovations or additions to pre-existing interior spaces.
Neighborhood Developments (LEED ND) – Community planning for large-scale master-planned communities, new subdivisions, mixed-use developments, and campuses.
Operations and Maintenance (LEED O+M) – Existing buildings and facilities such as offices, schools, warehouses, and hotels.
How Does Demolition Attribute to LEED Requirements?
Demolition contributes to many different categories depending on the project. Commonly, there are two major credit categories demolition contributes to for LEED accreditation – sustainable sites (SS) and material and resources (MR).
Sustainable Sites
Sustainable Sites credits work towards protecting and preserving natural environments. Demolition contributes towards obtaining LEED credits under sustainable sites with erosion and sedimentation control during demolition.
Priestly Demolition maintains control over possible pollutants by executing a sediment control plan. This control plan ensures erosion and sedimentation, during the demolition process, does not harm surrounding habitats.
Material and Resources
Material and Resources are the main source of credits attributed to demolition on LEED projects. Diverting salvaged material away from landfill sites, we can ensure that we get the most life out of our current materials and reduce pollution associated with the production of new material. We do this through recycling, re-using, re-purposing, re-selling and upcycling material. Another way we help achieve LEED certification is by using sustainable or recycled material, or material with environmental product declarations for backfill.
We keep track of our progress on credits through our PDI waste management plan. This helps us to stay on target and overcome any challenges that may arise during the demolition process.
The challenges of meeting LEED Requirements
Recycling Hazardous Materials
Hazardous materials such as asbestos, lead, PCBs (and others) pose a significant challenge when meeting LEED requirements, and requires some additional effort to safely remove and transport material to dedicated facilities. This is something PDI has extensive experience with handling. In 2024 PDI won a World Demolition Award for the Deconstruction of a contaminated 7-storey building on site at a nuclear facility. Every piece of the building had to be contained and shipped to a dedicated waste facility.
Meeting Percentage Requirements
A more arduous challenge for meeting LEED requirements is the high percentage of expected demolition debris diverted from landfills through recycling or reuse, but this is something we have been doing for 30+ years. We have maintained a standard of 95% of construction material being diverted, and often closer to 99%. The way in which we track these requirements is through our waste management plan. We sort material on-site to ensure accurate weight count before it is hauled off site to be recycled.
How is ESG and LEED Connected?
In our previous article, we outlined how salvaging on our demolition projects can directly supports ESG initiative—particularly the environmental pillar.
When it comes to LEED, think of ESG as a complete package. It covers environmental, social, and governmental policies and programs. However, LEED is only one part of this package but is a widely adopted framework that aligns closely with ESG. By using LEED as a benchmark, organizations can track their ESG goals in a structured and measurable system.
Priestly Demolition employs accredited project managers who have completed hundreds of LEED Certified projects. If you would like help to get your project LEED Certified, please give us a call or request a quote to discuss how Priestly Demolition’s experience and expertise can align with your goals.