GREEN BUILDING CERTIFICATIONS

Our services include LEED®, BREEAM®, GreenPoint Rated, SITES, TRUE Zero Waste, Fitwel®, and ENERGY STAR®, delivering sustainability and performance goals at scale.

Services

Turn Green Building Certification Into a Market Advantage

Whether you own a multifamily community, office asset, industrial facility, or large-scale venue, achieving leading building certifications can create measurable financial and competitive impact. Green Certifications help validate ESG commitments, reduce operating expenses, strengthen investor confidence, and position assets more favorably in leasing and capital markets. Over time, consistent measurement and verification of building performance also enhances transparency, supports regulatory readiness, and increases long-term asset value.

VCA Green’s experienced, credentialed team streamlines the entire certification process from eligibility assessment and strategy development to documentation, verification, submission, and review management. We guide projects through leading programs including LEED®, BREEAM®, ENERGY STAR®, Fitwel®, and HERS®, ensuring requirements are met efficiently and accurately. By managing the complexity end-to-end, we help clients scale certification success across individual assets and entire portfolios while unlocking the full financial and market benefits of high-performance buildings. Our team can perform a comprehensive GAP analysis of your project’s design, specs, and operations against LEED rating standards to highlight achievable credits, flag missing prerequisites, and map out the most cost-effective path to your target certification level.

Certifications For New Construction

LEED® BD+C

LEED Building Design and Construction (BD+C) is one of the most recognized green building certifications in the world — and the standard by which institutional investors, corporate tenants, and municipal agencies measure efficient design. Designed for new construction and major renovation projects, it evaluates energy performance, water efficiency, indoor environmental quality, materials, and site sustainability.

LEED v5 is coming into effect on June 30, 2027. Whether you prefer to register under LEED v4 before the deadline or start strategizing for LEED v5, VCA Green provides green building certification services including Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) consulting.

LEED® ID+C

LEED Interior Design and Construction (ID+C) applies the rigor of green building certification to tenant improvement and interior projects — making it a common choice for corporate occupants, law firms, healthcare providers, and any tenant committed to occupying a high-performance space. It evaluates indoor environmental quality, energy efficiency, water use, and material selection within the scope of the interior build-out, independent of the base building.

With LEED v5 coming into effect on June 30, 2027, our team is fully equipped to assist you, whether you prefer to register under LEED v4 before the cutoff or start strategizing for v5.

Sustainable SITES Initiative®

SITES is the most comprehensive rating system that evaluates and certifies sustainable, resilient design for newly constructed outdoor spaces such as parks, corporate campuses, and building landscapes. Developed in alignment with LEED, it evaluates a site across water management, soil health, vegetation, human wellbeing, and ecosystem services.

Parksmart

Parksmart is the only rating system designed specifically for high-performing parking structures — evaluating garages and parking facilities across transportation demand management, structure efficiency, technology, and innovation. As electric vehicle (EV) adoption accelerates and municipalities tighten transportation emissions standards, parking structures are under increasing pressure to demonstrate environmental performance.

Passive House Consulting

The Passive House standard requires projects to use levels of insulation that are beyond code and to eliminate nearly all air leaks and thermal bridges. It also requires intensive energy modeling. The result are buildings that are inexpensive to operate, exceptionally quiet, and exceedingly comfortable throughout the entire year.

Passive House certifications are not limited to just homes. Passive House buildings can be almost any type of building. The base certification is the Certified Passive House Classic, but projects adding solar can earn Plus or Premium certification. Through EnerPHit certifications, renovation projects can be recognized. VCA Green can help project teams seeking to certify buildings of any size, commercial or residential.

Certifications For Residential

LEED® BD+C: Homes

LEED for Building Design and Construction: Homes and Multifamily Lowrise brings the rigor of green building certification to residential construction — covering single-family homes, low-rise multifamily, and mid-rise residential projects. It evaluates performance across energy efficiency, water conservation, indoor air quality, materials, and site sustainability.

For developers, homebuilders, and affordable housing providers, LEED delivers a verified credential that reduces operating costs for residents, strengthens project marketability, and supports access to green financing incentives.

LEED® BD+C: Multifamily Midrise

Tailored for multi-family residential developments, LEED for Homes Midrise establishes clear benchmarks for sustainability, from optimizing energy and water usage to ensuring healthier indoor air quality.

LEED gives developers, homebuilders, and affordable housing organizations a recognized advantage by lowering resident utility bills, boosting project value, and maximizing eligibility for green tax credits and financing.

Energy Code Compliance (ECC) Program

The purpose of ECC testing is to provide third party verification on behalf of the owner. ECC testing can help ensure that installed systems meet the owner’s operational needs, which can save on operational costs and help extend the life of the equipment.

The operational performance of ECC tested systems is prescribed by the California Energy Commission through the California Code of Regulations Title 24, Part 6 Energy Standards.

National Green Building Standard® (NGBS)

National Green Building Standard (NGBS) is a green building rating system developed by Home Innovation Labs, an independent subsidiary of National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

NGBS certification provides certifies that a home, building, or land development is designed and built to achieve high performance in six key areas: Site Design, Resource Efficiency, Water Efficiency, Energy Efficiency, Indoor Environmental Quality, Building Operation & Maintenance.

ENERGY STAR® New Homes

ENERGY STAR Residential New Construction is a nationwide EPA program designed to improve energy efficiency in new single-family and low-rise multifamily homes.

For California developers, the program’s annual benchmarking requirement through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager aligns directly with AB 802 compliance — making certification a natural extension of existing regulatory obligations.

Certifications For Existing Buildings

LEED® O+M

As with LEED BD+C and ID+C, LEED Operations and Maintenance (O+M) certifies the ongoing performance of existing buildings and is widely used by owners and asset managers focused on operational efficiency and ESG compliance.

Rather than evaluating how a building was built, it measures how it performs day-to-day across energy, water, indoor environment, and occupant experience.

With LEED v5 coming into effect on June 30, 2027, our team is fully equipped to assist you, whether you prefer to register under LEED v4 before the cutoff or start strategizing for v5.

ENERGY STAR®

ENERGY STAR certification identifies buildings that perform in the top 25% of their building category nationally. In many energy disclosure and Building Performance Standards (BPS) laws, achieving ENERGY STAR certification can exempt a building from prescriptive pathways, and energy audits. Our award-winning benchmarking team collects accurate utility data and submits on behalf of the building owner, ensuring their building credentials support BPS compliance, ESG reporting, and tenant demand.

BREEAM®

BREEAM is a leading international green building certification — and the preferred standard for European investors, multinational tenants, and global institutional portfolios operating across borders. It evaluates buildings across energy, water, materials, ecology, pollution, transport, and occupant wellbeing, with a flexible framework applicable to new construction, major renovations, and existing buildings.

For owners and developers with international holdings or cross-border ESG commitments, BREEAM ensures your assets meet the credential that global capital markets increasingly require.

TRUE Zero Waste

Total Resource Use and Efficiency (TRUE) is the leading certification for facilities committed to eliminating waste sent to landfill, incineration, and the environment. Achieving TRUE certification requires diverting 90% or more of total waste from landfill — demanding a clear strategy of procurement, operations, and material flows across the entire facility.

For corporate campuses, healthcare facilities, and institutional owners with ambitious ESG commitments, TRUE certification turns waste reduction from a reporting metric into a verified, publicly recognized credential.

Certifications For Health and Wellness

Fitwel®

Fitwel certification is designed to support occupant health and wellbeing — evaluating how a building’s design, location, and operations influence the physical, mental, and social health of the people inside it.

Recently, Fitwel has become a selling point sought by corporate tenants, healthcare organizations, and institutional owners committed to workforce wellbeing.

WELL

WELL evaluates buildings designed around human health across ten categories including air, water, nourishment, light, movement, thermal comfort, sound, materials, mind, and community.

Increasingly required by corporate headquarters, life sciences facilities, and Class A office tenants with workforce wellbeing mandates, WELL certification signals that a building is designed to perform for its occupants at the highest level.