Strategic Alignment in Green Building Certification: An Importance-Performance Analysis of LEED v4 New Construction Projects

10 pages•Published: June 2, 2026

Mohsen Goodarzi, Tamer Breakah, Mohammadsoroush Tafazzoli, Mohsen Garshasby and Mohamed Metwally

Abstract

This study evaluates the relationship between credit-category importance and achieved performance in LEED v4 New Construction (NC) certified projects using a comprehensive Importance–Performance Analysis (IPA). A dataset of 1,344 certified projects was analyzed to assess how major LEED credit categories align with their relative weighting and market-level achievement. The results reveal that Location & Transportation (LT), Energy & Atmosphere (EA), and Indoor Environmental Quality (EQ) are positioned in the “Concentrate Here” quadrant, indicating high importance but below-average performance. Sustainable Sites (SS), Water Efficiency (WE), and Materials & Resources (MR) were classified as low importance and low performance, while Innovation (IN) and Regional Priority (RP) achieved above-average performance despite lower importance. A robustness test comparing mean- and median-based thresholds confirmed the stability of the quadrant assignments, with only EA shifting to “Keep Up the Good Work”. These findings identify key opportunities to improve strategic performance in the most influential LEED categories. The study contributes a robust, data-driven framework for assessing market-level certification dynamics and demonstrates the analytical reliability of IPA as a diagnostic tool for green-building evaluation. The results provide actionable insights for optimizing resource allocation and advancing performance-driven sustainability practices in the construction industry.

Keyphrases: green building, ipa, leed, new construction

In: Wesley Collins, Anthony Perrenoud and John Posillico (editors). Proceedings of Associated Schools of Construction 62nd Annual International Conference, vol 7, pages 475-484.

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/L2Qw
	https://doi.org/10.29007/3mct

BibTeX entry

@inproceedings{ASC2026:Strategic_Alignment_Green_Building,
  author    = {Mohsen Goodarzi and Tamer Breakah and Mohammadsoroush Tafazzoli and Mohsen Garshasby and Mohamed Metwally},
  title     = {Strategic Alignment in Green Building Certification: An Importance-Performance Analysis of LEED v4 New Construction Projects},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of Associated Schools of Construction 62nd Annual International Conference},
  editor    = {Wesley Collins and Anthony Perrenoud and John Posillico},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Built Environment},
  volume    = {7},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2632-881X},
  url       = {/publications/paper/L2Qw},
  doi       = {10.29007/3mct},
  pages     = {475-484},
  year      = {2026}}

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