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Documenting LEED v5 BPSP — Your Questions, Answered

by | Jun 25, 2026 | Blog Post, News

The Bullitt Center, Seattle — a leading green building

Follow-up Q&A from the HPDC × USGBC webinar, June 17, 2026.

More than 270 of you joined us on June 17 for Documenting LEED v5 BPSP — and you brought outstanding questions, far more than we could answer live. This follow-up collects the most common ones, with answers from USGBC’s Wes Sullens and HPDC’s Wendy Vittori and Milla Marcano. The webinar recording will be shared with all registrants — watch your inbox.

A quick framing note before the questions: LEED v5’s Building Product Selection & Procurement (BPSP) credit rewards products with stronger, multi-attribute transparency. Materials transparency is one of five BPSP criteria areas — it is not a standalone “ingredient” credit anymore. Roughly 90% of the attributes recognized under LEED v4/v4.1 still count; they have simply been reorganized.

Continuing education & GBCI credit

Is this webinar eligible for GBCI continuing-education credit? What’s the Course ID?
Yes — the course is approved for 1 CE hour, and the GBCI Course ID is 0920034934. You self-report through your GBCI account; when you do, enter the course ID number rather than the course title. If you hold LEED AP BD+C, LEED AP ID+C, or LEED Green Associate, these are LEED-specific CE hours; other credentials (such as LEED AP O+M) earn general CE hours.

Access, cost & membership

What does it cost to access the tool? Is an active HPD membership required?
All of the capabilities shown are free to use for registered HPDC Builder users — access is through HPDC membership. For full, unlimited access, affiliate membership is just under $1,000/year. For occasional or limited use, a lower-cost token program is available.

Is there a price for practitioners (architects/specifiers), not just manufacturers?
Practitioners do not need a separate paid tier to use the Builder and scoring tool — access comes with membership (or tokens), the same path described above.

The calculator & criteria resources

Is there a link to the calculator and the criteria/scoring table?
Yes:

The approved-document table is updated roughly every six months through the standard LEED addenda process.

How scoring works

How do material costs factor into the calculation?
For each product category you choose the metric that fits your project — cost, area, or volume — and you can mix metrics across categories.

If a product has an optimized EPD (3), a third-party-verified HPD (2), and a Declare label (1), is its score capped at 5 or summed to 6?
Within a single criteria column you take the highest applicable value, not the sum — there’s no double-counting, and the calculator handles this automatically. The maximum multiplier is 5x.

Why doesn’t post-consumer recycled content score higher than pre-consumer?
It does — this was a typo in the materials shown. Post-consumer is weighted 1x and pre-consumer 0.5x. (Thanks to the attendee who caught it.)

How does the multi-attribute score relate to final LEED points?
There are two distinct tools: (1) the scoring tool inside the HPDC Builder, which computes each product’s multi-attribute score and achievement level (Level 1/2/3, acting as multipliers up to 5x); and (2) the USGBC LEED calculator spreadsheet, where those scores roll up into final LEED points. HPDC supplies the per-criteria score, achievement level, and the scoring-document URL; cost-adjusted value is entered by the project team in the LEED calculator.

Product categories & coverage

Will this apply to products not in the BPSP categories — e.g., network/data cabling, MEP, or structural products?
Yes, through LEED v5 pilot credits in the optional credit library:

How do we document MEP and structural products for the pilot credit when the calculator has no dropdown for those categories?
An updated calculator with that capability is expected to be uploaded as part of the July LEED addenda. A pilot-credit calculator is in final testing.

Will GreenGuard or other low-VOC / low-emission certifications count?
VOC emissions and content are planned as recognized document types but are not collected today — they will be added in a future release as the compliance-library document list expands. (About half the document types are live now; the rest follow, with VOC among the later additions.)

Will polycarbonate skylights fall under the ceilings category, and will cost-adjusted value be included?
Yes — coverage isn’t a problem. Every product category is covered either by the BPSP credit or by the two pilot credits, and HPDs are not filtered by CSI MasterFormat, so any product can score. On cost: cost-adjusted value is entered manually by the project team — the LEED calculator already has a column for it. HPDC supplies the multi-attribute score, achievement level, and scoring-document URL per criteria area; the project team adds the cost figure.

HPDs, documents & eligibility

My published HPD returns “Not eligible product – Nested” in the v5 scoring tool. How do I make my EPDs eligible?
The HPD must be PreCheck for LEED v4.1 or v5. In the live example (Armourcoat Spatulata P70/P80), Milla added the required PreChecks on the spot — republishing the HPD then lets it score. If you hit this, contact HPDC with the product name and we’ll check the PreCheck status.

Do existing HPDs need to be republished to be scored?
No. All published HPDs are scored automatically — there’s no need to republish existing HPDs. (Republishing is only needed after a change, like adding a PreCheck.)

Can the Builder incorporate documentation beyond HPDs — recycled content, take-back/recycling services, etc.?
Yes. Any document type on the criteria/label-guidance table can be added to the product’s compliance library (URL, name, issue/expiry date, unique identifier). About half the document types are live now; the rest follow. Bio-based content is deferred pending USGBC guidance.

What happens when a document expires? Does the Builder automatically pull in renewed certificates?
No automatic renewal. When a certificate is renewed, the manufacturer updates the document and republishes; the update then flows through HPDC’s APIs into the repository. Project teams can also use the “contact manufacturer” feature to request an updated certificate. Expired documents stop scoring once USGBC defines the validity rule for that document type; unexpired documents continue to count. Per Wes: documentation should be valid at the time of purchase/installation, and GBCI allows leeway if a document expires after the building’s certification date.

Data, automation & workflow

Are APIs in the works to connect other databases and automate data upload — rather than only CSV upload?
Yes — APIs already move published data into the repository, and CSV upload is supported today (a unique identifier is required to map documents to products). Further automation is on the roadmap.

How do you export / manage LEED documentation when running multiple projects at once?
The Builder provides per-project download queues/folders: select the products for a given project and download a CSV with the multi-attribute columns pre-filled.

International scope

Are Canadian (and other international) projects, architects, products, and specifiers part of this effort?
Yes — there is strong participation from Canada, Mexico, and South America. An EU version, tuned to EU regulatory requirements, is shipping very soon, and the credit library includes European alternative-compliance-path filters.

What’s next

  • Recording: shared with all registrants — watch your inbox.
  • Publishing capability: rolling out now; existing compliance data mapped shortly after.
  • Project-team tools: a repository dashboard and pre-filled LEED-calculator download are coming, followed by a dedicated project-team webinar.

Questions we couldn’t fully resolve here will be updated as USGBC publishes the July addenda. For product-specific help (PreCheck status, eligibility, scoring), contact HPDC.