About Greenbuild's 2026 Workshops

8am - 12pm ET

LEED v5 is more than a rating system—it’s a roadmap for cutting carbon, elevating human well-being, and restoring nature. In this hands-on workshop, you’ll turn the LEED v5 Building Design + Construction framework into project-ready strategies that deliver measurable results.

We’ll break down how the three impact areas—decarbonization, quality of life, and ecological conservation and restoration—translate into actionable credits and real-world outcomes. We’ll review each credit category to show you what’s new and what’s changed from LEED v4/v4.1, where the big wins are, and how to navigate new or reworked prerequisites and credits.

We’ll walk through the latest resources to build your LEED v5 toolkit, show how to leverage Arc for performance tracking, and share documentation best practices that streamline certification.

Learning Level: Basic
CE Hours: 3.5
LEED AP Specific: LEED AP BD+C

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss the impact areas of LEED v5 and their alignment with LEED credits
• Navigate the available tools and resources to effectively support project teams in achieving LEED v5 BD+C certification
• Summarize the requirements of key prerequisites and credits in LEED v5 BD+C
• Manage project data reporting, documentation, and data entry using the platform workspaces and offline tools to support LEED v5 BD+C Certification
  
  

8am - 12pm ET

Getting your EDGE certification shouldn’t feel like a high-stakes guessing game. Created by IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) was designed to make resource-efficient building in emerging markets fast, simple, and affordable. The secret to a seamless experience? Understanding the process through the eyes of the pros who audit and review your projects.

You will learn about the latest EDGE Buildings updates and tools, gain practical strategies to prepare quality submissions, and discover expert tips to save time and reduce costs.

Join this high-impact, interactive workshop designed to pull back the curtain on the GBCI EDGE certification process. We aren’t just reading from a manual—we’re bringing in experienced EDGE Auditors to share the "view from the other side."

Whether you are scaling resource-efficient buildings in emerging markets or setting a new benchmark for resource-efficient development, this session provides the essential roadmap for your success.

Learning Level: Intermediate
CE Hours: 3.5
LEED AP Specific: N/A

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the major updates to the EDGE green building standard, EDGE App, and certification system.
• Identify the specific tools and technical resources provided by IFC to support project teams and EDGE practitioners.
• Outline the end-to-end process for successfully certifying EDGE Buildings through GBCI.
• Apply practical tips and strategies from experienced EDGE Auditors (EDGE Premier Service Providers) to prepare complete, high-quality project submissions, streamline the submission process, minimize revisions, reduce project costs, and to maximize business opportunities.

8am - 12pm ET

The LEED for Communities rating systems have provided a framework for over 265 projects to improve their holistic sustainability, by addressing energy, water, waste, transportation, public health, and quality of life — and retooling the way communities are planned, developed, and operated.

The LEED for Communities frameworks encompass social, economic, and environmental performance indicators and outcomes-oriented strategies with a clear, data-driven means of benchmarking and communicating progress. LEED for Communities are places such as new or redeveloping mixed-used communities, master-planned developments, business improvement districts (BIDs), economic development zones, neighborhoods, corporate and university campuses, and military installations.

Certification is typically initiated by private sector planners or developers, corporate entities, quasi-government authorities, universities or non-governmental organizations.

This workshop will address both LEED for Communities rating systems.

Learning Level: Intermediate
CE Hours: 3.5
LEED AP Specific: LEED AP ND

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the LEED for Communities rating systems and its applicability to a variety of projects.
• Identify the requirements and the processes for certification and tools and resources available to projects pursuing LEED for Communities.
• Apply experience from experts certifying projects to these rating systems to enhance green infrastructure and community resilience.
• Establish confidence in participants’ ability to pursue LEED for Communities certification for their unique projects through hands-on activities throughout the workshop.

1pm - 5pm ET

The 1:5:200 rule says it all: for every dollar spent on construction, five are spent on operations, and $200 on the people who work there. Personnel costs dwarf bricks, beams, and utilities. So how can we design spaces for people beyond mere sufficiency and basic comforts, spaces where people are healthy, productive, and able to truly thrive? And how can we ensure that the design strategies we know are good for people actually make it into the final built product?

Many designers understand the importance of biophilic design and experiential delight. Yet these strategies are often the first to get “value engineered” out. And despite its name, value engineering is seldom about creating value, and rarely has much to do with engineering. Too often it becomes synonymous with cost cutting. During this process, little attention is paid to the lived experiences of the people who will ultimately inhabit the building.

This workshop explores the critical connection between intent and impact. It will focus on how to clearly articulate experiential intentions, followed by practical ways, including using LEED v5, to advocate for and integrate human centered design so deeply into a project’s DNA that it withstands budget pressures and competing priorities, ensuring that the final product is dynamic, inclusive, and memorable. Finally, we will discuss mechanisms for evaluating impact - how do we measure success from the occupants’ experience? How do we know what’s working and what’s not? Because ultimately, it’s about more than design, and more than comfort. It’s about creating inhabited spaces that actively contribute to occupant wellbeing, inspire care, and connection. It is these spaces that people love and that consistently provide a return on investment.

Learning Level: Intermediate
CE Hours: 3.5
LEED AP Specific: LEED BD+C, ID+C, O+M

Learning Objectives:

• Identify practical strategies in LEED v5 BD+C, LEED v5 ID+C, and LEED v5 O+M to embed human-centered design principles early and deeply in the design process
• Use LEED v5 prerequisites and credits: Human Impact Assessment, Occupant Experience, Accessibility and Inclusion (LEED v5 BD+C and ID+C), and Occupant Experience Performance (LEED v5 O+M) to enhance widespread occupant satisfaction, stewardship, and belonging.
• Develop tactics to protect experiential and wellbeing-focused elements from value engineering
• Evaluate design decisions through the lens of occupant experience and long-term impact.

1pm - 5pm ET

This workshop shows how to optimize projects data reporting, documentation, data entry, and performance verification tools. You will learn to efficiently use USGBC platform workspaces, features, and offline tools that support LEED v5 Operations and Maintenance and PERFORM Verification.

We’ll align the three impact areas - decarbonization, quality of life, and ecological conservation and restoration with LEED v5 credits to drive real-world change. And we’ll review each credit category to show you what’s new and what’s changed from LEED v4/v4.1, where the big wins are, and how to navigate new or reworked prerequisites and credits.

The workshop will also show how PERFORM complements LEED to demonstrate portfolio-level achievements. Participants will also gain understanding on existing building project setup, data flow between credits, reporting, bulk data uploads, importing data from your respective software tools.

The session will also walk through the available tools and resources to build your toolkit for success, how to leverage Arc for performance tracking, and share documentation best practices that streamline certification and verification.

Learning Level: Basic
CE Hours: 3.5
LEED AP Specific: LEED AP ND

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the key principles and framework of LEED v5 O+M rating system
• Summarize the requirements of key prerequisites and credits
• Navigate the available tools and resources to effectively support project teams in achieving LEED v5 certification
• Manage project data reporting, documentation, and data entry using the platform workspaces and offline tools to support LEED v5 O+M Certification and PERFORM Verification.

1pm - 5pm ET

This workshop will show how TRUE and its community are working together to expand the adoption and impact of zero waste. In this interactive workshop, presenters will demonstrate the varied ways TRUE helps scale zero waste adoption: through presentations from professionals who have implemented TRUE across their portfolio of sites; case studies of some of the trailblazers in their sector and region; and an interactive deep dive on the key themes of TRUE v2.

Attendees will see and discuss first-hand the scale of impact zero waste can have: through business transformation, cost savings, decarbonization, and beyond.

We will share information on the soon-to-be-released TRUE v2 Rating System to give attendees an early look at what's next and how this update will expand the impact and benefits of the certification.

Learning Level: Intermediate
CE Hours: 3.5
LEED AP Specific: N/A

Learning Objectives:

• Define the impact zero waste has on the planet, people, and business
• Identify how zero waste can be applied and scaled across different regions and sectors
• Describe how to implement TRUE across an organization’s full portfolio of sites
• Explain how TRUE v2 will drive and measure environmental and financial impact