LEED GA Practice Questions: Integrative Process, Planning and Assessments

Integrative Process, Planning and Assessments is the smallest knowledge domain on the LEED Green Associate exam at 6 of the 100 questions. It covers early assessment, systems thinking, life-cycle costing and who belongs on a project team — plus the equity, resilience and carbon assessment content that LEED v5 brought to the front.

Six questions is not many, and it is tempting to skip this domain. Do not. Its content is conceptual rather than technical, so it is quick to learn, and much of it — equity, climate risk, embodied carbon — is new enough that candidates working from older material simply have not seen it.

What this domain covers

The exam specification lists two areas: assessments and the integrative process itself, including early assessment, systems thinking and life-cycle cost analysis; and the integrative project team, covering who is involved — architect, community stakeholders, consultants, contractor, engineers, facility manager, landscape architect, owner and technicians.

In practice the domain also carries LEED v5's treatment of social equity, worker wellbeing, climate hazard assessment and early carbon assessment, all of which sit in the planning and assessment stage of a project.

10 Integrative Process practice questions

Fill in your details, take all 10 questions, and submit once — we'll grade it and email you the score plus a full explanation for every question.

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Welcome to your LEED GA Practice Questions: Integrative Process, Planning and Assessments

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1.What is systems thinking?

A. Designing the building's mechanical systems before the architecture

B. Using building automation to control systems centrally

C. Understanding individual elements and how they relate to the whole

D. Documenting each system separately for the certification submission

None

2.Why does the integrative process insist on collaboration early rather than later?

A. Because contractors are cheaper to engage at concept stage

B. Because influence over outcomes is highest and the cost of change lowest at the start

C. Because GBCI requires an early submission

D. Because the design team is less busy early on

None

3.What is iterative decision-making?

A. Making decisions quickly to keep the programme moving

B. Delegating decisions to individual disciplines

C. Examining and revisiting solutions repeatedly as better information becomes available

D. Repeating the same analysis to confirm a result

None

4.What is the difference between a life-cycle approach and life-cycle costing?

A. A life-cycle approach considers all stages from raw materials to end of life; life-cycle costing weighs purchase cost against long-term operating cost

B. They are the same thing

C. A life-cycle approach applies to materials, life-cycle costing to energy

D. Life-cycle costing is only used for LEED Platinum projects

None

5.Which of these does not belong on an integrative project team?

A. The facility manager who will operate the building

B. Community stakeholders affected by the project

C. The GBCI review team

D. The commissioning provider

None

6.What is a charrette?

A. A formal design review by the local authority

B. An intensive collaborative workshop where the project team explores goals and options together

C. A document setting out the owner's requirements

D. A checklist used during commissioning

None

7.What is environmental justice?

A. The principle that all people deserve equal protection from environmental and health hazards

B. Legal action taken against polluting facilities

C. A requirement to offset a project's carbon emissions

D. Compensation paid to communities near construction sites

None

8.What are fenceline communities?

A. Communities separated from a development by a physical barrier

B. Residents whose property borders a construction site

C. Communities consulted during the planning process

D. People living immediately next to polluting facilities, who bear disproportionate impacts

None

9.What is a climate risk and hazard assessment for?

A. Identifying and prioritising the climate hazards the project will face, early enough for the design to respond

B. Calculating the project's carbon emissions

C. Determining the building's insurance premium

D. Assessing whether the site is contaminated

None

10.Why does LEED v5 want carbon assessed early in the project?

A. Because certification cannot begin until carbon is calculated

B. Because carbon assessment is a Minimum Program Requirement

C. Because embodied carbon can be reduced after construction

D. Because both operational and embodied carbon are largely determined by early decisions, when change is still possible

None

Time's up

Where candidates lose marks in this domain

• Confusing life-cycle costing with life-cycle assessment. Money versus environmental impact. Both appear on the exam, in different domains.
• Putting GBCI on the project team. They review independently.
• Missing the equity content entirely. Older study material does not include it.
• Blurring hazard, risk and resilience. Three distinct terms.
• Thinking embodied carbon can be fixed later. It cannot.

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