LEED Canada for Core and Shell (CS) is a derivative of LEED Canada NC and applies to buildings where less than 50% of the building area will be fit-up to LEED Canada NC requirements prior to certification.

LEED Canada CS certification was made possible by the release of the Application Guide for Core and Shell Buildings and Leased Tenant Spaces, which not only provides details for achieving LEED Canada CS certification, but also provides flexibility and guidance in applying LEED Canada NC 1.0 to leased tenant spaces. Specifically, it makes allowance for some leased tenant space that is not fit-up to NC requirements at the time of certification. Provision is also made for up to 10% of the building floor area (20% in the case of mixed-use buildings) to be completely exempted.

The application guide, published in July 2008, applies retroactively to allow everyone to benefit from its flexibility. The thresholds for LEED Canada CS are identical to those for LEED Canada NC:

Certified: 26 points
Silver: 33 points
Gold: 39 points
Platinum: 52 points
Total available: 70 points

For an overview of the application guide, view the Fact Sheet. The application guide is free for CaGBC members and may be downloaded directly from the “Documents” section of MyCaGBC. Non-members may purchase the guide for $55.

Order the Application Guide

It should be noted that there are differences between the US and Canadian Core and Shell rating systems.

 A difference may be perceived in the point scale used for EAc1 (Optimized Energy Performance), however no real difference exists. The USGBC has adopted ASHRAE 90.1-2004 and the CaGBC still references ASHRAE 90.1-1999. The two systems are effectively equivalent.