This week, 25 years after the launch of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) first version of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, the council has announced the release of LEED v5–an updated standard that incorporates new criteria focused on human health, resilience, and decarbonization.

USGBC was founded in 1993 by real estate developer David Gottfried, environmental attorney Michael Italiano, and environmental marketing expert Rick Fedrizzi. The nonprofit organization united professionals in architecture and sustainability to create a green building rating system aimed at improving building performance. That system would develop into LEED.

Around this time, a broader national conversation about sustainable building practices took hold. President Bill Clinton announced a “Greening of The White House,” based on his belief that the President’s official residence and workplace should serve as a model of American sustainability. After an energy audit, upgrades were made to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, including new lightbulbs, a new HVAC, double-pane windows, and a “super-efficient” Whirlpool refrigerator. In the years that followed, individual states began developing and adopting their own sustainability guidelines for new construction, further embedding green standards into public policy and infrastructure planning. Now, there over 195,000 LEED certified projects in 186 counties.