Exploring the Performance Trends in LEED-Certified Schools in Massachusetts: Analyzing Scorecards for Sustainability Insights

Schools are essential environments for student development, with the quality of these buildings playing a significant role in shaping students’ learning experiences. Several factors, including indoor air quality, thermal comfort, acoustics, and daylight access, can impact both student well-being and academic performance. Therefore, evolving government regulations and updates to sustainable building standards, such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certifications, have prioritized enhancing the quality of school buildings. This study aims to identify the trends within LEED for school certifications between 2019 and 2024 by examining each rating system category to determine whether these trends vary across categories and investigating the influence of sustainability policies. For this purpose, LEED v4 scorecards for all LEED-certified school buildings in Massachusetts were collected and analyzed to investigate the correlation between various LEED criteria and certification levels. The findings of this study show that the overall certification points do not strongly correlate with any single category, indicating that multiple categories collectively influence the final certification score. However, the Energy and Atmosphere category has emerged as a critical differentiator in LEED certification, particularly with the recent adoption of the International Energy Conservation Code in Massachusetts. Temporal analyses also highlighted growing trends in the Indoor Environmental Quality category, reflecting post-pandemic priorities and updated Green Schools policies in Massachusetts. This study provides actionable insights for stakeholders to optimize sustainability efforts, particularly by targeting the most impactful categories to enhance certification outcomes and foster healthier, more sustainable learning environments.