Building for the Future: Enhancing Resilience with Cool Surfaces in LEED v5

Solar-reflective roofs, walls, and pavements reduce heat exposure from individual buildings to communities and globally. LEED v5 integrates surface reflectance across multiple credits and prerequisites, recognizing its impact on energy, health, durability, and urban heat-island mitigation. The session will address shortcomings in historical climate data and highlight the importance of forward-looking assessments for building design. Presenters will outline relevant LEED v5 credits, how to use third-party radiative property ratings for documentation, and certified project examples. Emphasizing systems thinking, they show how cool surfaces connect envelope, site, energy, and occupant health.

After attending this session, participants will be able to:

• Describe how LEED v5 integrates cool surface requirements across multiple credits and prerequisites to address heat resilience at building and site scales.
• Identify the radiative properties that define cool surface performance and explain how third-party rating systems support product comparison and LEED documentation.
• Evaluate the limitations of historical climate baselines for heat exposure and explain how forward-looking climate data informs material and design decisions over a 50-year service life.
• Explain how cool surfaces function within a systems approach to heat-resilient design, connecting envelope performance, energy use, occupant health, and urban heat island mitigation.

This webinar can be self-reported for 1 free general-hour of LEED, WELL, and/or AIA continuing education.