LEED v4 Certification: 40–80 Points, 110 Available, No Prerequisite Optional (v4, 2019 addenda)

40 points. That is the minimum score for LEED Certified, the lowest tier in LEED v4 BD+C. 80 points earns Platinum. The score does not matter if a single prerequisite is missed. LEED v4 BD+C offers 110 available points across nine point groups, and no prerequisite is optional. This guide covers LEED v4 BD+C (New Construction) as published in the July 2019 addenda; LEED v4.1 is a separate version and is not covered here. LEED v5 has also been released (USGBC) and is not covered. Here is the tier breakdown.

LEED v4 certification scores at a glance

Tier thresholds and category point totals for LEED v4 BD+C New Construction:

Tier thresholds (Certified 40-49, Silver 50-59, Gold 60-79, Platinum 80-110) and category totals: USGBC LEED v4 BD+C checklist. Source for credit-level values: LEED v4 BD+C rating system, July 25, 2019 addenda (USGBC).

What are the LEED v4 certification tiers?

LEED v4 BD+C is a point-based green building rating system by USGBC that awards four certification tiers based on total points earned. Certified requires 40 points out of 110 available. Silver requires 50. Gold requires 60. Platinum requires 80. The 110 points come from nine point groups: Integrative Process (IP, 1), Location and Transportation (LT, 16), Sustainable Sites (SS, 10), Water Efficiency (WE, 11), Energy and Atmosphere (EA, 33), Materials and Resources (MR, 13), Indoor Environmental Quality (EQ, 16), Innovation (IN, 6) and Regional Priority (RP, 4). Prerequisites are mandatory; credits are optional. Not every group has prerequisites: for New Construction, IP and LT have none. Adaptations of BD+C for Schools, Retail, Data Centers, Warehouses and Distribution Centers, Hospitality and Healthcare adjust some credit values; for example EA Optimize Energy Performance is 1-18 points for New Construction, 1-16 for Schools and 1-20 for Healthcare.

Why does the 40/50/60/80 point structure exist?

The 40/50/60/80 tier structure gives four distinct achievement levels for market differentiation. Certified at 40 points is 36% of the 110 available. Platinum at 80 points is 73% of the 110 available, which requires strong performance across nearly all categories. The 110-point ceiling counts the base credits plus the Innovation and Regional Priority points. USGBC’s published reasoning for the specific thresholds is not quoted here; the thresholds themselves are in the rating system.

Why do prerequisites block certification regardless of points?

Prerequisites are mandatory minimum performance standards that every LEED v4 BD+C project must meet at every certification tier. A project that earns 79 points but misses a single prerequisite receives no certification, and no credit substitutes for a missed prerequisite. The EA category carries four prerequisites: Fundamental Commissioning and Verification, Minimum Energy Performance, Building-Level Energy Metering and Fundamental Refrigerant Management (LEED v4 BD+C, pp. 63-69). The Minimum Energy Performance prerequisite sets the baseline at ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2010, Appendix G, with errata (p. 65). The EQ category requires Minimum Indoor Air Quality Performance, which references ASHRAE 62.1-2010 sections 4-7 (p. 106), and Environmental Tobacco Smoke Control. The WE category has three prerequisites: Outdoor Water Use Reduction, Indoor Water Use Reduction and Building-Level Water Metering (pp. 50-54). Teams that treat prerequisites as a post-design checklist discover compliance gaps late; fixing ventilation sizing or refrigerant choices after design development carries change-order costs.

What credits earn the most points?

EA Optimize Energy Performance is the highest single credit in LEED v4 BD+C: up to 18 points for New Construction (p. 73). Points scale with percent improvement in the proposed building performance rating over the ASHRAE 90.1-2010 baseline: 6% earns 1 point for New Construction and 50% earns 18. Indoor Environmental Quality is 16 points in total, covering enhanced IAQ strategies, low-emitting materials, construction IAQ management, IAQ assessment, thermal comfort, interior lighting, daylight, quality views and acoustic performance. Water Efficiency offers 11 points across outdoor water use reduction (2), indoor water use reduction (6), cooling tower water use (2) and water metering (1). The Integrative Process credit awards 1 point for early analysis of energy-related and water-related systems; the energy discovery analysis must be a preliminary “simple box” model completed before the end of schematic design (IP Credit, p. 9). Regional Priority offers up to 4 bonus points. The LEED Accredited Professional credit adds 1 point within the Innovation group.

How does LEED v4 compare across jurisdictions?

LEED v4 is used internationally, but whether it is required depends on the owner or the authority. The US federal requirement often quoted for LEED Gold traced to Executive Order 13514, which is no longer in force. EO 13693 (2015) revoked it (FedCenter); EO 13834 (2018) revoked EO 13693 (FedCenter); EO 14057 revoked EO 13834 in section 604 (86 FR 70935, Dec. 13, 2021); and EO 14154 (Jan. 20, 2025) revoked EO 14057 (text). Check the current agency or owner requirement (for example the Guiding Principles for Sustainable Federal Buildings and the GSA facilities standards) rather than assuming a LEED level. State, provincial and municipal requirements vary and should be confirmed with the authority having jurisdiction. Other schemes, such as DGNB in Germany and BREEAM in the UK, are used alongside or instead of LEED on many projects.

The part everyone gets almost right

The Integrative Process credit is a commonly missed opportunity: 1 point for early analysis that must begin in pre-design and include a simple-box energy analysis before schematic design is complete. Teams that start energy modeling in design development lose the IP point and the passive-design synergies that early analysis would have found. Treating LEED compliance as identical to local code compliance is a second error. In LEED v4 BD+C, EA Minimum Energy Performance references ASHRAE 90.1-2010, which may be older or newer than the edition a jurisdiction has adopted; a code-compliant building can still fail the LEED prerequisite if the proposed design does not beat the Appendix G baseline by at least 5% for New Construction. A third oversight is ignoring Regional Priority credits: USGBC assigns Regional Priority credits by project location, and the points come from credits already on the scorecard. Check the Regional Priority list before finalizing the scorecard.