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Applying LEED to hospitality and venue projects

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What are the advantages of using LEED for hospitality spaces?

Hotels and public assembly venues have significant opportunities to reduce environmental impacts associated with guest rooms, event spaces, and general facility operations through measures such as energy and water efficiency, waste reduction and management, sustainable and local purchasing, and alternative transportation. Hotels and conference centers can also promote human health by providing healthy, comfortable, and productive indoor environments with improved air quality, access to daylight and views, and occupant control over lighting and thermal conditions.

USGBC promotes cost‐efficient, resource‐saving green building design, construction, and operations to protect the global environment and human health. The LEED green building certification program provides the framework for designing and operating hotels sustainably. On average, green buildings use 26% less energy, emit 33% less carbon dioxide, use 30% less indoor water, and send 50% to 75% less solid waste to landfills and incinerators. For hospitality venues, integrating green building strategies into design, construction, and daily operations make business sense and can be an important part of a company’s commitment to sustainability.

How can hospitality and venue projects earn LEED certification?

Hospitality buildings and interior spaces can achieve certification under various LEED rating systems at different stages of their lifecycle:

  • LEED for Building Design and Construction (BD+C): New Construction and Major Renovation is the most appropriate rating type for buildings that are new construction or major renovation. At least 60% of the project's gross floor area must be complete by the time of certification and must include the entire building's gross floor area in the project.
  • LEED for Interior Design and Construction (ID+C): Interior spaces that include complete interior fit-outs with at least 60% of the project's gross floor area completed by the time of certification. Spaces are considered incomplete if they do not include the furnishings, fixtures, and equipment intended for regular operations of the space. 
  • LEED for Operations and Maintenance (O+M): Existing Buildings can be applied to existing buildings that are fully operational and occupied for at least one year. The project may be undergoing little improvement work or little to no construction and must include the entire building's gross floor area.

Venues such as convention centers, stadiums, arenas, and other public assembly spaces should use the rating system that best fits their lifecycle stage (new construction or existing building) and scope of work (whole building or interior).

How many hospitality and public assembly projects are certified under LEED?

As of September 2025, there are 4,277 LEED‐certified and registered lodging and hotel projects representing 1.55 billion square feet or 144 million square meters of built spaces. LEED-certified and registered public assembly spaces such as convention centers, stadiums, and community civic spaces represent over 5,955 projects and 947 million square feet or 88 million square meters.

What issues are unique to hospitality projects?

Due to features such as on‐site amenities, food and beverage operations, pool and laundry operations, convention facilities, frequent renovation cycles, and transient guest populations, hospitality properties and venues can present unique challenges and opportunities in certain areas of environmental performance. USGBC brought together a group of hospitality industry leaders to identify the areas of LEED that needed further attention considering hospitality‐specific circumstances.

Through its established committee structure, USGBC then formed the Hospitality Adaptations Working Group comprised of industry experts from USGBC member companies. This group worked with the LEED Steering Committee, USGBC staff, and the LEED Technical Advisory Groups to modify certain LEED credits to better capture the environmental impacts and opportunities associated with hospitality properties. The LEED credits produced by this process and the work of the Hospitality Adaptations Working Group can be found in:

  • Regular Occupied Spaces
  • Indoor Water Use
  • Waste Diversion
  • Low Emitting Materials
  • IAQ Assessment
  • Thermal Comfort
  • Interior Lighting

See the LEED v4.1 BD+C and ID+C: Hospitality rating systems and corresponding guides for more details.

How does LEED address the unique challenges of hospitality and venue projects?

LEED v5 is the most current version of the rating system and is available for all commercial projects pursuing certification under New Construction, Core and Shell, Commercial Interiors, and Existing Buildings. Many of the strategies developed for hospitality and venue projects under previous versions of LEED, have been adapted for LEED v5 or can be found in the new Project Priorities and Innovation credit category. Credits in this category offer greater flexibility to address unique project contexts and priorities, including typology, culture, location, areas of innovation, and individual performance objectives. Sector-specific Project Priority credits are continuously being developed and will be released in the Project Priority Library for use.

What kind of hospitality projects can be certified through LEED?

Hospitality and venue spaces such as hotels, motels, resorts, convention centers, stadiums/arenas and other public assembly spaces have several unique considerations that warrant a more specific LEED offering. LEED strategies for hospitality addressesnew construction and major renovations, new and existing commercial interiors, and existing building projects - giving project teams more solutions than ever.

Hospitality. Buildings dedicated to hotels, motels, inns or other businesses within the service industry that provide transitional or short-term lodging, with or without food.

Convention Centers. A large building or complex of many buildings that are designed to host major conventions, trade shows, meetings and special events. Convention centers are typically located in urban, walkable areas and are capable of hosting thousands of attendees. Convention centers have a variety of unique features such as large-scale commercial kitchens and extensive freight and shipping operations facilities.

Sports Venues. At the largest scale, sports venues include arenas and stadiums that serve as homes for collegiate or professional sports teams and international sporting events, like the Olympics or the World Cup. Many communities and educational institutions also operate sports venues in support of competitive, recreational and intramural activities.

Performing Arts Centers. Multi-use spaces and facilities with seating and staging including theaters, concert venues, opera houses, music halls and more.

Community Centers & Public Assembly Spaces. These facilities host a range of services and activities for local communities that include group activities, educational opportunities, public service activities and much more.

How does the Arc platform relate to hotels and venues?

The LEED v4.1 O+M rating system offers a unique performance-based pathway to certify your existing buildings and interior spaces. This new rating system uses Arc, a state‐of‐the‐art platform designed to collect, manage and benchmark your building across five performance categories: energy, water, waste, transportation, and human experience.

What does this mean for the hospitality sector? LEED O+M: Existing Buildings and LEED O+M: Existing Interiors can be used to compare and benchmark hotels and venues with other similar facilities from around the world.  See the LEED v4.1 O+M Beta Guide for more details on properly setting up the project’s building settings which ensures it is being compared to similar facilities and weighted per the LEED v4.1 O+M requirements. How to conduct surveys for visitors and guests is also included.

Within the Arc platform, the portfolio feature allows owners and operators to continuously monitor their performance at any given time and make informed choices to optimize the project’s performance based on real-time data and analytics. The Arc platform can also be used to help inform which projects formally certify and recertify under LEED.

LEED v5 BD+C, ID+C, and O+M rating systems allow for all space types to certify utilizing the new Arc experience, which offers fluidity and flexibility for users. All performance, certification, and reporting will be delivered in one place.

How does LEED address hospitality projects with multiple buildings on site?

Properties such as resorts and entertainment districts typically include multiple different buildings onsite in pursuit of LEED. Project teams have a variety of options using existing LEED guidance which confirms the LEED project boundary may include other buildings. If another building or structure within the LEED project boundary is ineligible for LEED certification, it may be either included or not included in the certification at the project team’s discretion.

If another building within the LEED project boundary is eligible for LEED certification, it too may be either included or not included in the certification. If included, the project must use the LEED campus certification process which allows projects that are on a shared site under the control of a single entity to develop campus-appropriate documentation and capture economies of scale in the certification. Learn more about the LEED Campus program here.

Of special note is the allowance for hotels, resorts, and resort properties as defined by ENERGY STAR, to treat multiple, physically distinct structures as a single building for LEED purposes. For new construction projects, each structure in the application must contain less than 25,000 sq. ft. of gross floor area.

What LEED resources are available for hospitality and venue project teams?

There are a variety of technical resources and educational courses available to help teams apply LEED to their projects. This includes but is not limited to the following:

USGBC Market Sector Reports

LEED for Hospitality Rating Systems and Reference Guides

Education

Articles and Briefs

Where can I find owner profiles and case studies on LEED for hospitality and venue projects?

View non-confidential LEED registered and certified projects in the USGBC project directory by entering key terms in the search bar. You can also filter by region and rating system type to get more specific results.

Check out similar project profiles at:

Hotels and Lodging

Convention and Expo Centers

Stadiums and Arenas

Who can I contact for more information on LEED for hospitality and venues?

For more information about LEED in the hospitality sector, contact us.

Is there a document I can download and send to my team?

Yes! Click the link below.

 

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