855773644-LEED-v5-BD-C-Reference-Guide-Launch-Edition - Page 231

Extracted Content

Projects must either meet the prescriptive building envelope requirements of ASHRAE 90.1, Section 5.5 or apply ASHRAE 90.1, Section 5.6 Building Envelope Trade-off Compliance Path to demonstrate that the building envelope does not significantly underperform compared to a prescriptively compliant building envelope. (See more details for each path under the prescriptive method section of this guidance).

If using the Building Envelope Trade-off Compliance Path, the proposed envelope performance factor cannot exceed the baseline envelope performance factor by more than 15% for residential occupancies or more than 7% for non-residential occupancies.

For projects that cannot prescriptively comply with ASHRAE 90.1 building envelope criteria, the design team should evaluate Building Envelope Trade-Off compliance early in the design process and make any necessary design changes to meet these minimum requirements. Compliance may prove particularly challenging for projects with high window-to-wall ratios.

Additional considerations Projects pursuing points for EAc2: Reduce Peak Thermal Loads and using the Building Envelope Trade-Off Compliance Path must have a proposed envelope performance factor that does not exceed the baseline envelope performance factor.

Equivalence to ASHRAE 90.1

Refer to the Project Priorities Library for regional paths addressing equivalence to ASHRAE 90.1 .

For U.S.-based projects, state or local codes are equivalent to ASHRAE 90.1-2019 or ASHRAE 90.1-2022 when the U.S. Department of Energy Building Energy Codes Program status of state energy code adoption indicates a commercial code efficiency category matching the referenced version of ASHRAE 90.1 or later for the project location in effect at the time of project permit application.

For projects documenting equivalence with ASHRAE 90.1, provide additional documentation to demonstrate compliance with the provisions of the envelope backstop referenced in ASHRAE 90.1-2019 Addendum cr and ASHRAE 90.1-2022 . Examples include:

- The project meets the prescriptive envelope requirements for the referenced code.

U.S. Green Building Council LEED v5 Reference Guide for Building Design and Construction, April 2025 Launch Edition 221