Light as a LEED Strategy: Lighting Credits in LEED v5 and v4.1
LEED v5 folds the v4.1 daylight and interior lighting credits into one occupant experience credit, and this is the credit-by-credit comparison of what each version asks a lighting design to prove.
LEED v5 scores lighting in a different place from LEED v4.1. The v4.1 Daylight and Interior Lighting credits are folded into EQc2 Occupant Experience, where Option 5 Lighting Environment carries 1 to 6 points inside a credit capped at 7. A LEED lighting strategy written against the v4.1 scorecard does not transfer to v5 unchanged.
ALTA Integra sets LEED lighting credits next to the metering and commissioning credits that decide whether a design survives handover.
Every v5 figure here comes from the February 2026 edition of the LEED v5 BD+C rating system and every v4.1 figure from the April 2021 v4.1 BD+C guide. That second choice matters. usgbc.org still serves an April 2019 v4.1 guide whose Interior Lighting language was superseded in 2021, so the most findable source for the v4.1 LEED lighting requirements prints a luminance limit and a colour target the credit no longer uses.
Unless a line says otherwise, every figure below is BD+C New Construction. Core and Shell numbers the same lighting option differently and drops parts of it, and those differences are named where they bite.
Where LEED Lighting Points Sit in LEED v5
LEED v5 launched in April 2025 for the commercial rating systems and it is the current version. The scale is unchanged at 110 points, with Certified at 40 to 49, Silver at 50 to 59, Gold at 60 to 79 and Platinum at 80 or above. What moved for lighting is the address.
Platinum in v5 asks for more than the total. A New Construction project also has to earn 5 points at EAc1 Electrification and 8 points at EAc3 Enhanced Energy Efficiency, cover 100% of site energy use from any combination of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 renewable energy at EAc4, and cut embodied carbon 20% at MRc2. Core and Shell sets those first two at 4 and 5 points and measures renewables against base building energy use.
LEED lighting work reaches those thresholds through the energy credits. Lighting power that overshoots its allowance costs no LEED lighting point. It pulls down EAc3, one of the four Platinum gates.
LEED Lighting Credits in v5 and v4.1, Side by Side
Here is the comparison in one place. The version boundary that trips teams most often is the ASE threshold, so read that row twice.
| What the LEED lighting scope answers | LEED v5 BD+C New Construction | LEED v4.1 BD+C New Construction |
|---|---|---|
| Which credit holds lighting | EQc2 Occupant Experience, 1 to 7 points, with Option 5 Lighting Environment at 1 to 6 | Two EQ credits, Daylight 1 to 3 points and Interior Lighting 1 to 2 points |
| Solar glare control | Option 5 Path 1, 1 point | A requirement inside Daylight, no separate point |
| Electric light quality | Option 5 Path 2 Quality Electric Lighting, 1 point, glare and colour both required | Interior Lighting, 1 strategy for 1 point, 3 strategies for 2 points |
| Window proximity | Option 5 Path 3, 1 point, at least 30% of regularly occupied area within a 20-foot (6-metre) horizontal distance of glazing above 40% visible light transmittance | No equivalent credit |
| Daylight simulation | Option 5 Path 4, 1 to 4 points, an alternative to Path 3 | The Daylight credit's simulation option, 1 to 3 points |
| Luminaire glare limit | Below 6,000 cd/m² between 45 and 90 degrees from nadir, or UGR of 19 or lower | Below 7,000 cd/m² between 45 and 90 degrees from nadir, or UGR below 19 |
| Colour rendering | CRI of at least 90, or TM-30-20 with Rf 78 or higher, Rg 95 or higher and Rcs,h1 between -1% and 15% | CRI of at least 90, or a colour fidelity index of 78 or above with a gamut index between 97 and 110 |
| Lighting control as a lighting point | Absent from the lighting path. Occupant lighting adaptability sits in EQc2 Option 2 with thermal and sound | Interior Lighting strategy 3, dimmable or multilevel lighting for 90% of occupant spaces |
| Surface reflectivity | No equivalent inside EQc2 | Interior Lighting strategy 4, across at least 90% of regularly occupied spaces: ceilings 80%, walls 55%, work surfaces 45%, movable partitions 50% |
| Energy metering | EAp4 Energy Metering and Reporting, required | Advanced Energy Metering, 1 point |
| Energy performance | EAc3 Enhanced Energy Efficiency, 1 to 10 points | Optimize Energy Performance, 1 to 18 points on typical New Construction |
| Commissioning | EAc5 Enhanced Commissioning, 1 to 4 points, monitoring-based commissioning 1 to 2 inside it | Enhanced Commissioning, 2 to 6 points |
| Core and Shell | Same four paths, same 1 to 6 points, numbered Option 2 | Interior Lighting is unavailable to Core and Shell |
v5 figures from the February 2026 LEED v5 BD+C rating system, v4.1 figures from the April 2021 v4.1 BD+C guide. Daylight thresholds are compared separately below.
Two rows carry most of the LEED lighting work. Path 4 is the only route to more than one point, and Path 2 is where a luminaire selection passes or fails. The rest of the lighting option is worth a point each.
Inside EQc2: The Four LEED Lighting Paths in Option 5
EQc2 Occupant Experience is worth 1 to 7 points. Lighting sits in Option 5 Lighting Environment at 1 to 6 of them, and Option 5 holds four numbered paths: Path 1 Solar Glare, Path 2 Quality Electric Lighting, Path 3 Proximity to Windows for Daylight Access, and Path 4 Daylight Simulation.
The arithmetic explains the cap. Paths 1 and 2 are worth 1 point each, and Path 3 at 1 point and Path 4 at up to 4 are alternatives to each other, so the ceiling is 1 plus 1 plus 4. The credit's own summary table prints AND/OR between those last two paths, which disagrees with its printed 1 to 6 cap, so the cap is the number a LEED lighting scope is built against.
Path 1 asks for manual or automatic glare-control devices with a manual override in every regularly occupied space that receives direct or reflected sun penetration. Spaces designed intentionally for direct sunlight may be excluded. Path 3 counts only unobstructed area toward its 30%.
Quote the option number with the rating system attached. Core and Shell numbers the same container Option 2, holding the same four paths and the same 1 to 6 points. A LEED lighting submittal that says EQc2 Option 5 is describing New Construction.
Daylight Thresholds in LEED Lighting Credits: sDA and ASE
sDA is the share of an analysis area reaching a target illuminance for at least a set share of annual occupied hours, so sDA300/50% is the floor area reaching 300 lux for half of occupied hours or more. ASE is the share receiving direct sunlight above a threshold for more than a set number of hours, so ASE1000,250 is the area exceeding 1,000 lux of direct sun for more than 250 occupied hours a year. Both are annual climate-based simulations run on hourly weather data.
The method differs by version, and this is where LEED lighting documentation gets its simulation brief. v5 pins IES LM-83-23. v4.1 pins IES LM-83-12. LM-83 accounts explicitly for the movement of operable shading at the daylight apertures, so shading design and simulation cannot be briefed apart.
| Daylight measure | LEED v5 | LEED v4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Simulation standard | IES LM-83-23 | IES LM-83-12 |
| 1 point | sDA300/50% of 40% or above | sDA300/50% of 40% or above |
| 2 points | sDA 55% or above | sDA 55% or above |
| 3 points | sDA 65% or above | sDA 75% or above |
| 4 points | sDA 75% or above | Unavailable, the credit caps at 3 points |
| Written glare response required above | ASEnet(1000,250h) of 20% | ASE1000,250 of 10% |
| Areas without visual tasks | sDA150/50% permitted against a 225 lux design target | No equivalent allowance |
Both versions start at sDA 40% for one point. v5 adds a 65% tier, moves 75% from three points to four, and doubles the ASE threshold that triggers a written glare response.
v5 also states plainly that spaces are not to be excluded on the basis of annual sunlight exposure. v4.1 does not address the question. That single line removes the easiest way to make a weak daylight result look compliant.
Daylight does two jobs and only one earns the point. The certification route sits in EQ. The same daylight moves the energy model through electric-light savings, solar heat gain and cooling load, which is where LEED lighting credits meet the passive design work on shading, orientation and glazing.
Quality Electric Lighting: Glare and Colour in Both Versions
The v5 Quality Electric Lighting path is one point and asks for two things at once. Glare control and colour rendering are both required for it. The choice sits inside each criterion.
Glare control gives every luminaire three routes and asks it to meet one: calculated luminance below 6,000 cd/m² between 45 and 90 degrees from nadir, a unified glare rating of 19 or lower by the UGR tabular method for each space, or a UGR of 19 or lower from software modelling of the designed lighting run to the NEMA White Paper on Unified Glare Rating of 2021.
Colour gives two routes. A project either uses luminaires with a colour rendering index of at least 90, or meets the v5 TM-30-20 table in full, which asks for a fidelity index Rf of 78 or higher, a gamut index Rg of 95 or higher, and a red local chroma shift Rcs,h1 between -1% and 15%. All three are needed together.
v4.1 Interior Lighting is built the other way round. One strategy earns 1 point and three earn 2, drawn from glare control, colour rendering, lighting control and surface reflectivity, so the v4.1 LEED lighting scope picks the ground it can document.
The colour route is where the two versions quietly part. v4.1 accepts a colour fidelity index of 78 or above with a gamut index held between 97 and 110, a bounded band. v5 keeps Rf at 78, replaces that band with a floor of Rg 95 or higher, and adds Rcs,h1, which v4.1 does not use at all.
Occupant control over lighting did not leave LEED v5. It moved to EQc2 Option 2 Adaptable Environment, bundled there with thermal and sound adaptability, so LEED lighting work alone can no longer earn it. Option 2 also asks for one accessible quiet space and one of five listed additional strategies, and Core and Shell does not carry it.
Surface reflectivity is the one with no v5 equivalent inside EQc2. v4.1 had already trimmed this credit once, when USGBC removed the v4 strategies for lamp life, direct overhead lighting and surface illuminance ratio. LEED lighting requirements written from both versions at once will over-promise on both.
The Most Findable LEED Lighting Figures for v4.1 Are Out of Date
The LEED v4.1 BD+C Guide dated 9 April 2019, still hosted on usgbc.org, carries the superseded v4 carryover version of the Interior Lighting credit. It asks a project to choose four of eight lighting-quality strategies, sets luminaire luminance at 2,500 cd/m², and sets colour rendering at CRI 80. The July 2020 reference guide repeats that language, and it is the file most v4.1 LEED lighting documentation gets checked against.
The April 2021 guide replaced all three. Luminance moved to 7,000 cd/m² with UGR below 19 added as an alternative. Colour rendering moved to CRI 90 with a colour fidelity index added, and four-of-eight became one strategy for one point and three for two points.
USGBC records each change in its own words inside that guide, stating that the light fixture luminance threshold was decreased from 2,500 to 7,000 cd/m², that the colour rendering index threshold was increased from 80 to 90, and that the strategies for lamp life, direct overhead lighting and surface illuminance ratio were removed. That conclusion holds, and the top-ranking PDF is stale, which is a live risk for any v4.1 LEED lighting claim.
The direction of the error is worth knowing. A team designing to the 2019 file holds luminaires to a limit almost three times stricter than the credit asks, while accepting a colour target ten CRI points below what it now requires. Both are documentable failures at review, in opposite directions.
So the v4.1 LEED lighting figures have to come from the April 2021 guide. The 2019 document is the one a search engine surfaces first, and it is the wrong one to design against.
Where Metering and Commissioning Meet LEED Lighting Work
EAp4 Energy Metering and Reporting is a v5 prerequisite, so no project skips it. Metering devices follow ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1, the 2019 edition or later for projects registered before 1 January 2028 and the 2022 edition or later on or after that date, and on-site renewable generation is metered too. Monthly whole-building metering by energy source and peak demand is the requirement for major renovations and for buildings eligible for the ASHRAE 90.1 metering exceptions.
The reporting side is widely read as monthly, and the published requirement splits differently. The commitment is to report to USGBC at least annually, sending monthly data covering 12 consecutive months of total consumption by source, on-site renewable generation and peak electrical demand. It carries forward five years or until the building changes ownership or lessee.
v4.1 covers the same ground for one point. Advanced Energy Metering asks for meters on any end use representing 10% or more of annual consumption, permanently installed, recording at intervals of one hour or less, remotely accessible, storing at least 36 months of data. Lighting submetering under v4.1 is required only when the lighting end use meets that scope, so it is a LEED lighting scope question.
v5 EAc5 Enhanced Commissioning is worth 1 to 4 points. Option 1 carries 1 to 3, at 2 points for MEP systems under ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 202-2024 plus attendance at at least two design-phase coordination meetings, and 1 point for the building enclosure. Option 2 Monitoring-Based Commissioning carries 1 to 2, at 1 point for basic software and 2 for enhanced, on a three-year minimum commitment starting no later than occupancy with quarterly anomaly reporting and at least annual trend reporting.
v4.1 Enhanced Commissioning is 2 to 6 points. In both versions the LEED lighting deliverable is identical. Zones, sensor behaviour, dimming, overrides and fail states go into the control narrative and then into the tests, and LEED lighting work that stops at the fixture schedule has nothing to hand the commissioning authority.
Seven Limits That Travel With the LEED Lighting Figures
Every figure above carries a limit. Seven of them. They are the part of the LEED lighting scope that survives contact with a review.
| The claim | The limit that travels with it |
|---|---|
| Metering data proves energy use | It demonstrates nothing about daylight quality, glare control or occupant satisfaction. Visual comfort needs its own evidence |
| The lighting-related point ranges look additive | They cannot be summed as a lighting total. EAc3 and EAc5 are whole-building credits, and two of Option 5's four paths are alternatives |
| A dimmer, a sensor or a control panel is a control device | A control strategy is the zones, sequences, overrides and tests that match how the space is actually used |
| v5 removed lighting control and surface reflectivity from the quality-electric-lighting path | Occupant lighting adaptability reappears in EQc2 Option 2, bundled with thermal and sound. Surface reflectivity is the one with no EQc2 equivalent |
| The EU directive sets zero-emission new public buildings from 1 January 2028 and all new buildings from 1 January 2030 | Those dates bind the EU, subject to the directive's implementation provisions. Obligations and dates vary by jurisdiction |
| A timeline of rating systems shows BREEAM and LEED as the certification lane | That lane is a representative sample of rating systems and never a complete catalogue |
| LEED runs on 110 points with Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum bands | That scale and those bands apply to the commercial rating systems under discussion |
Each limit travels with the claim beside it. Drop one and a defensible number becomes an overstatement.
The second limit is the one that costs money. Adding EAc3 at up to 10, EAc5 at up to 4 and Option 5 at up to 6 produces a number no lighting scope can deliver, and a LEED lighting budget priced off that sum will be short.
The fourth is the one most often reported wrongly. v5 did remove two strategies from the lighting path, and it did not remove occupant control from the rating system. Saying the first without the second turns a relocation into a deletion.
Which LEED Version Applies, and the Dates That Decide It
The version question is settled at registration, which fixes the LEED lighting requirements before design starts. Teams follow the rating system and the addenda in effect on the project's registration date, so a 2026 registration under v4.1 stays a v4.1 project through review.
Registration for the v4 and v4.1 commercial systems closes on 30 June 2027, and from 1 July 2027 v5 is the only version open to new registrations. The certification sunset is 30 June 2033. Volume projects referencing existing prototypes have until 30 June 2030 to register, and split reviews get an additional 18 months beyond the sunset for construction submissions.
The current v5 BD+C text is the February 2026 edition, printed on its cover. Its addenda table is dated 20 February 2026, every dated entry falls on 3 November 2025 or 20 February 2026, and none touches a lighting requirement. Option 5, its four paths, the 6,000 cd/m² figure, UGR 19, CRI 90, the TM-30-20 table, the sDA thresholds and the ASE clause all stand as printed, so LEED lighting documentation written to that edition is current.
One addendum shows why a New Construction figure should never be assumed to carry into Core and Shell LEED lighting work. The 3 November 2025 correction from 2,000 feet (600 meters) to 200 feet (60 meters) was applied to New Construction. The Core and Shell twin still reads 2,000 feet (60 meters) in the February 2026 edition, a figure that contradicts itself and remains uncorrected.
LEED is one lane of a wider certification picture. BREEAM New Construction Version 7 and LEED v5 both arrived in 2025, and BRE's V7.1 release note is dated 26 August 2026 and calls V7.1 a minor update.
Where LEED Lighting Points Are Won or Lost
The conclusion is narrow and testable. Lighting becomes a sustainability and LEED strategy only when the team coordinates the design, proves the performance and protects it after handover. The immediate action is an early cross-discipline workshop, the point at which the lighting designer scope and the green building certification scope meet.
ALTA Integra's lighting work under these credits runs across several building types. The practice delivered facade lighting for Danantara Plaza Mandiri and the lighting design for Gereja Katedral Jakarta and Gereja Katedral Makassar, three projects built with Signify products.
FAQ
Where are LEED lighting points scored in LEED v5?
Lighting sits in EQc2 Occupant Experience. Option 5 Lighting Environment carries 1 to 6 of that credit's 1 to 7 points on BD+C New Construction, across four paths: Solar Glare, Quality Electric Lighting, Proximity to Windows for Daylight Access, and Daylight Simulation. Core and Shell numbers it Option 2. LEED v4.1 scored the same ground as two credits, Daylight and Interior Lighting.
What is the ASE limit in LEED v5 compared with LEED v4.1?
v5 asks for a written glare response wherever ASEnet(1000,250h) exceeds 20% in a regularly occupied space. v4.1 sets that trigger at ASE1000,250 above 10%. Those two figures are the easiest thing to reverse when LEED lighting requirements are carried across versions. v5 also states that spaces are not to be excluded on the basis of annual sunlight exposure.
Does LEED v5 still award a point for lighting controls?
Not as a LEED lighting point. v5 left the dimmable or multilevel lighting strategy out of the quality-electric-lighting path, where v4.1 had it at 90% of occupant spaces. Occupant control reappears in EQc2 Option 2 Adaptable Environment, bundled with thermal and sound, so lighting work alone cannot earn it. Control still matters to EAc5, where zones and overrides are tested.
Which LEED version applies to a project registering now?
The rating system and addenda in effect on the registration date, and that fixes the LEED lighting requirements with it. LEED v4 and v4.1 commercial registration closes on 30 June 2027, and v5 is the only option for new registrations from 1 July 2027. Certification under v4.1 closes on 30 June 2033, with volume projects referencing existing prototypes able to register until 30 June 2030.
Why do sources disagree on the v4.1 LEED lighting figures?
The credit was revised in April 2021 and the older guide is still online. Luminance moved from 2,500 cd/m² to 7,000 cd/m² with UGR below 19 added, colour rendering moved from CRI 80 to CRI 90, and four-of-eight became one strategy for one point and three for two. The April 2019 guide usgbc.org still hosts carries the old figures.
Who provides LEED lighting design consulting in Jakarta?
ALTA Integra works on lighting design and green building certification for projects in Jakarta and across Indonesia, including facade lighting at Danantara Plaza Mandiri and the lighting design for the Jakarta and Makassar cathedrals. A LEED lighting scope usually starts with the daylight simulation brief and the lighting control narrative, because those two documents carry the points.
Sources
- U.S. Green Building Council, "LEED v5 BD+C Rating System, February 2026 Edition", the source for every v5 credit code, point range and threshold used here.
- GBCI, "LEED v4.1 BD+C Guide, April 2021", the current v4.1 credit language and the source for every v4.1 figure here.
- USGBC, "LEED BD+C: v4.1 to v5 Summary of Changes", on the consolidation into Occupant Experience.
- USGBC, "LEED v5 BD+C Addenda Table, all, 20 February 2026", the current v5 addenda list.
- USGBC, "LEED v4 and v4.1 commercial registration close extended to June 30, 2027", with the 30 June 2033 sunset.
- USGBC, "LEED certification deadlines", for the volume-prototype exception and the split-review extension.
- USGBC, "LEED v5", on v5 as the only version for new registrations from 1 July 2027.
- USGBC, "LEED v5" hub, on the April 2025 launch of the commercial rating systems.
- USGBC, "About LEED", for the Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum bands.
- USGBC, "LEED", on the prerequisite, credit and review structure.
- USGBC, "LEED v5 ID+C Rating System", a cross-check that the v5 lighting numbers match between BD+C and ID+C.
- USGBC, "LEED BD+C v4.1 Addenda Table, 1st edition, 14 February 2025", cumulative through that date.
- USGBC, "LEED BD+C v4.1 Addenda Table, 3 November 2025", the later v4.1 set.
- LEEDuser, "NC-v4.1 EQc6 Interior Lighting", third-party corroboration of the four v4.1 strategies.
- USGBC, "U.S. Green Building Council launches new, more comprehensive LEED rating system", on the 2025 arrival of v5.
- BRE, "BRE launches new version of leading sustainability tool BREEAM New Construction", on Version 7 in 2025.
- BRE, "BREEAM New Construction V7.1 release note", reference KBCN1907, dated 26 August 2026.
- BREEAM, "BREEAM New Construction V7.1", the current scheme page.
