2025 USGBC Impact Report, The Zero Waste Blueprint: How LEED and TRUE Are Closing the Loop on Waste
At All About Waste, we specialize in helping our clients achieve ambitious sustainability goals through strategic consulting, detailed waste audits, and expertise in green building certifications like LEED and TRUE. That's why we're excited to share the 2025 USGBC Impact Report, The Zero Waste Blueprint: How LEED and TRUE Are Closing the Loop on Waste.
This essential report from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) provides a comprehensive look at the global waste crisis and, more importantly, a data-driven framework for solving it. It defines the scale of the global problem and provides insight into innovative strategies that are advancing the transition to a circular economy.
The Zero Waste Blueprint highlights the critical, combined role of two leading certification programs in this transformation:
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design): Transforming individual buildings and entire cities by integrating waste reduction and circular principles into design, construction, and operations. According to the report, LEED-certified existing projects are responsible for diverting 1.7 million tons of solid waste from landfills and incinerators each year.
TRUE (Total Resource Use and Efficiency): The world’s leading certification system for facility-level zero waste. TRUE-certified projects demonstrate remarkable operational excellence, achieving an average diversion rate of 95% across certified projects. This commitment not only drives environmental progress but also yields an average of over $20,000 in annual savings and $21,000 in revenue per project from recovered materials.
As your partner in zero waste solutions, we encourage you to explore this report to see how proven frameworks are turning the built environment from a waste generator into a resource regenerator. The path to near-zero waste is clear, achievable, and profitable, and the data in this report proves it.
Read the full report here.