Takeaways from Greenbuild 2025

This year’s Greenbuild International Conference & Expo, held in Los Angeles, brought together green building professionals from around the world to explore the future of sustainable design, construction, and building operations. With a focus on innovation, resilience, and decarbonization, the conference highlighted how the industry is adapting to new paradigms, particularly LEED v5, material health, high-performance retrofits, and emerging digital technologies.

Several CAGBC staff members, along with industry professionals from across the Canadian green building sector attended the conference. CAGBC brought together delegates for a relaxed and fun evening of bowling, where they reflected on key insights from the conference’s sessions, workshops, and summits.

Conversations shaping the industry:

Harmonizing tools, standards, and frameworks

A major area of discussion centered on the growing need for alignment across sustainability tools and standards. Speakers highlighted efforts to integrate frameworks such as LEED, BREEAM, Green Star, WELL, and the Living Building Challenge through initiatives like the Common Materials Framework. As several speakers pointed out, LEED v5 is already incorporating many of these elements, which project teams — especially in Canada, can expect clearer pathways, reduced duplication, and more consistent performance outcomes across certification systems.

Navigating LEED v5 tools and updates

Practitioners brought clarity around applying the new LEED v5 tools and requirements. Sessions provided practical guidance on updated credit structures, process prerequisites, and enhanced features of the Arc platform. How strategies such as multi-attribute product selection, deeper integration of embodied carbon can help teams reduce carbon across the building lifecycle.

Accelerating digital, automated, and AI-enabled solutions

Technology-driven advancement was another dominant area of conversation. Presenters showcased how robotics, digital automation, prefabrication tools, and AI-enabled building systems are moving from concept into real-world application. Experts highlighted how data analytics, smart sensors, and real-time virtual buildings models are improving operational performance, enabling predictive maintenance, and supporting more adaptive building operations.

Resilient building systems and disaster recovery

Enhancing resilience in response to climate-driven hazards such as wildfires, floods, and power outages was a key focus. Sessions highlighted how LEED v5 supports wildfire-resilient landscapes, material selection, and coordinated community planning. Experts also explored designing for future climate scenarios using downscaled climate data to anticipate shifting weather, extreme heat, and precipitation, while others spoke on water-efficient design and fire-resilient real estate, showing how passive solutions, smart site planning, and durable materials can protect both people and buildings.

Targeting carbon reduction across building materials and systems

Embodied carbon reduction was as an important topic, with presenters highlighting strategies to lower carbon intensity across major building elements. Sessions covered approaches such as low-carbon concrete, optimized envelope design, high-performance roofing systems, and energy-efficient mechanical, electrical, and plumbing solutions, covering ways to reduce emissions at the component level.

Emerging opportunities and environmental challenges in data centres

The environmental footprint of data centres was another prominent theme, with sessions examining the sector’s rising energy and cooling demands and the operational challenges tied to rapid digital growth. Presenters highlighted pathways to improve performance through efficiency upgrades, renewable integration, and innovative thermal management solutions such as waste-heat recovery, advanced cooling systems, and load-flexibility strategies. Discussions also explored integrating data centres into mixed-use developments to support district energy solutions and community-scale resilience.