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Extracted Content

INTEGRATIVE PROCESS, PLANNING, AND ASSESSMENTS (IP)

OVERVIEW

As an industry, the built environment has evolved to prioritize whole-building performance over isolated systems. The Integrative Process, Planning, and Assessments (IP) category builds on this approach in LEED v5 by emphasizing the importance of early-stage interdisciplinary collaboration and holistic, iterative planning to arrive at interrelated systems. By utilizing systems thinking to identify synergies across building systems before design begins, the IP category ensures intentional alignment between tenant-level and building-level goals, with a focus on decisions under tenant control in commercial interiors projects.

This holistic approach promotes proactive consideration of how each project addresses decarbonization; quality of life, including social equity and resilience; and ecosystem conservation and restoration from the outset. The strategies within the IP category help shape projects that are environmentally responsible, resilient, and equitable, benefiting both occupants and the broader community.

Key aspects of this category include:

• Timing . Initiating analysis in the early stages of the project (predesign)

• Engagement . Ensuring the right people are involved

• Interdisciplinary collaboration . Leveraging synergies across credit categories to maximize efficiencies and inform decision-making

• Assessment-based understanding . Conducting discovery that provides insights into natural hazards, carbon emissions, and human impacts, which are referenced throughout the rating system

Decarbonization The built environment contributes significantly to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accounting for 21% of total GHG emissions and 31% of global carbon emissions in 2019. [2] The IP category’s 10-year carbon assessment addresses energy use, refrigerants, embodied carbon, and transportation impacts ( IPp3: Carbon Assessment ). This assessment promotes carbon literacy and equips project teams with knowledge to apply to future projects, fostering industry-wide progress.

2 “Chapter 9: Buildings”, IPCC, accessed March 31, 2025, https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/chapter/chapter-9/.

U.S. Green Building Council LEED v5 Reference Guide for Interior Design and Construction, April 2025 Launch Edition 17