Resilience in LEED® v5: The Role of Masonry in Durable, High-Performance Buildings

Tuesday, March 24, 2026 | 12-1 p.m. Eastern Time
This program has been submitted to AIA for credit.

As climate-driven hazards increase and seismic risks remain, resilience has become a baseline expectation for non-residential buildings. LEED v5 reinforces this shift by introducing a new resilience assessment prerequisite and credits that reward hazard-informed site and building design, recognizing that sustainable buildings must protect life safety, support occupant health, and maintain function during and after disruptive events.
 
Join us to explore how masonry construction supports resilient design outcomes within the LEED v5 framework. We’ll examine how masonry contributes to long-term durability, fire resistance, thermal stability, moisture management, and adaptability, attributes that directly support risk reduction and occupant safety.
 
Through practical examples, learn how masonry can mitigate natural hazards, limit damage, and support safe, continuous building operations, while also aligning resilience goals with sustainability priorities such as decarbonization, circularity, and lifecycle performance. The session emphasizes the shared responsibility of owners, architects, engineers, and constructors to integrate resilience early in the design process and to translate LEED v5 requirements into effective, health- and safety-focused design strategies.
 
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Photo © Getty Images

Learning Objectives:

  • Explain how LEED v5 defines and incorporates resilience through the resilience assessment prerequisite and related credits, and how these requirements support occupant health, safety, and welfare.
  • Evaluate hazard-informed design strategies applicable to all building systems that reduce risk, limit damage, and support safe building operation during and after extreme events.
  • Identify the ways masonry construction contributes to resilient building performance, including durability, fire resistance, and environmental control that protect occupant health, safety, and welfare.
  • Apply masonry-specific resilience strategies to support long-term building performance, continuity of operations, and alignment with sustainability and decarbonization goals.

About the Speaker

Alan Scott, FAIA, LEED Fellow, LEED AP BD+C, O+M, WELL AP, CEM
Director of Sustainability, Intertek

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Alan Scott, FAIA, LEED Fellow, is a registered architect, solutionist, and sustainability practitioner with over 35 years of experience and a lifelong commitment to the environment. He is the Direct of Sustainability with Intertek Building & Construction. Alan creatively applies his skills as a facilitator, consultant, and project director in support of high-performance, sustainable built environment projects globally. His project work focuses on boosting new and existing building performance, decarbonization, occupant wellness and resilience. Alan is a frequent presenter at conferences, workshops and webinars on numerous topics related to sustainable communities, high-performance buildings, healthy building, and resilience, reaching audiences on three continents. Alan currently serves as Vice-chair of the USGBC Resilience Working Group, Co-chair of the AIA Resilience and Disaster Response (RADR) Committee, and as a member of the USGBC LEED Environmental Quality Technical Advisory Group.

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