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asks projects to identify relevant infrastructure and policy such as local sustainability commitments or accessibility codes. The assessment also requires taking stock of what resources may be accessible to the residents, staff, or potential users, such as transit availability or health care. It then evaluates impacts on occupant experience, such as air and water quality.

Lastly, it asks projects to address working conditions for low-wage staff/contractors, including wages. Project teams must consider how these elements interact with and impact each other to ensure that they guide project development with a comprehensive understanding of its social context.

Defining community Project teams must first establish the scope of their assessment by identifying the project’s community. Communities can be geographic and functional. Geographic communities start with the project’s neighborhood — the people who live and work in and near the project and interact with it by proximity. Geographic communities can also extend beyond to include towns, cities, or counties. Functional communities include all occupants, construction workers, and visitors who come to the building. These people may or may not live nearby.

Teams can also define community through various affinities or commonalities, such as age, ethnicity, income level, housing status, or educational background. The community may extend to include project team members, contractors, and managers who oversee the operations and maintenance of the project. Community within the context of the supply chain includes material suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, along with the workforce involved in production and transportation, highlighting local engagement and fair labor practices.

Address the core categories of human impact Teams must complete a thorough human impact assessment that evaluates the potential impact of the project on people, their living conditions, health, food security, education, and access to other resources. The assessment must include data collection and analysis of core human impact categories such as demographics, infrastructure, health, occupant experience, and working conditions, as well as other relevant social impacts identified, providing a comprehensive overview of the human impacts of project operations.

Project teams are encouraged to engage with community members and other relevant groups to gather insights, understand local needs, and validate data using these metrics:

• Demographics : Evaluate the local demographics of the area surrounding the building site to better understand how the project operations may influence the social fabric of the

U.S. Green Building Council LEED v5 Reference Guide for Operations and Maintenance, April 2025 Launch Edition 29