Duel or Dual: Co-Benefits of LEED and Envision

Although they share a common goal of promoting more sustainable design and construction practices, the Envision and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) sustainability rating and certification frameworks come from separate backgrounds and their ‘roots’ are reflected in how they are practically applied to projects. LEED was conceived to guide green building design based on occupant comfort and energy efficiency. Envision, in contrast, is focused more on the extended impacts that infrastructure projects can have on communities. Each certification framework hypothetically applies to distinct types of projects, with LEED reserved for occupied buildings and Envision reserved for non-occupied infrastructure projects. In practice, however the distinction is often blurry. Public infrastructure assets such as water and wastewater pump and treatment facilities often include spaces that are temporarily occupied yet experience different challenges in design from what either framework was conceived to address. Some owners have found value in drawing on the guidance in both LEED and Envision to achieve their performance goals for their assets. By examining infrastructure projects that have sought dual certification under both LEED and Envision, this paper will explore the relative benefits and limitations inherent in each framework, and areas where there are overlap and synergy in guidance provided. This paper will seek to answer the question of how these tools complement one another, and what value practitioners using each framework in isolation could learn from critically examining the other.