In the very early days of LEED-certified buildings, the credits and prerequisites found in the Materials and Resources category of the LEED rating system were some of the most worrisome credits for contractors working on a LEED project. The reason behind the worry was due to the amount of documentation that would be required to provide evidence of recycled content, regional materials, rapidly renewable materials and certified wood, not to mention construction waste management. The upside to all of this is that once you had gone through a LEED project, you had your systems in place for any future project. The downside was that many of the manufacturers did not produce the data needed for proper documentation.
As time went on, the materials and resources section of the rating system went unchanged, for the most part, for three LEED revisions. Just as the early versions of LEED called for the marketplace to react for the request for additional information, LEED v4 will continue to push accredited professionals and product manufacturers.
The Materials and Resources credit category found in LEED 2009 contained some of the easiest credits to achieve as long as the owner, designer and contractor had a common vision for the materials that would be used in a building. When documenting the credits found in this credit category, all a contractor had to do was provide cost data for the materials purchased for the project. The total cost of that material was used to formulate a ratio, which was then used for justification to award associated points. Recycled content was a good example of this.
A contractor would document all of the material costs for the project and then would differentiate the amount spent on goods and products with a high amount of recycled content. If the ratio of those products used was greater than 10 percent, one credit would be awarded, and if the ratio was 20 percent or higher, a team was awarded two points. The system was fairly easy to follow if the design team took the time to source products that supported the recycling goals set for the project. In those cases, the contractor purchased products listed in the specification, and material vendors and subcontractors would then generate the cost data. That was LEED 2009.
Today, while not required, teams are encouraged to use the newest form of LEED: LEED v4. This newest version has not only made the requirements of some of the familiar credits more stringent, it also introduces new credits and a new vocabulary accredited professionals need to know.
A review of the Materials and Resources credit category in LEED v4 indicates more than 30 terms are used and have been included in the glossary. Some of these terms are well used and commonly understood, like building exterior, for example. There are other phrases that were used in previous versions of LEED but now have taken on a new definition, as in the case of recycled content.
In previous versions of LEED documentation, the credit requirements would be satisfied if a manufacturer stated the quantity of recycled content in the product. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has now altered the definition used for this term by placing documentation requirements on the manufacturer. Now for a product to contribute to the materials and resources category, a product containing recycled materials must be defined in accordance with the International Organization of Standards document: ISO 14021-Environmental labels and declarations-Self-declared environmental claims (Type II environmental labeling). A simple statement on the manufacturer’s letterhead will no longer suffice.
There are other terms that are completely new. These terms, which are new to the LEED rating system other than in early pilot credits, include environmental product declarations, life cycle inventory and life cycle assessment. Life cycle assessment is the evaluation of the environmental effects of a product from cradle to grave, as defined by ISO 14040-2006 and ISO 14044-2006. Life cycle inventory is a database that defines the environmental effects (inputs and outputs) for each step in a material’s or assembly’s life cycle, and the database is specific to countries, as well as regions within these countries. Environmental Product Declaration states that the item meets the environmental requirements of ISO 14021-1999, ISO 14025-2006 and EN 15804, or ISO 21930-2007.
Even words that were once commonplace in a LEED project, like product, take on a new meaning. A product is now described as an item that arrives on the project site, either as a finished element ready for installation or as a component to another item assembled on-site. The product unit is defined by the functional requirement for use in the project. This includes the physical components and services needed to serve the intended function of the permanently installed building product. In addition, similar products within a specification contribute as separate products.
The LEED rating system has changed, and the accredited professionals delivering LEED projects need to learn a new vocabulary. More impactful is the change that the new requirements are signaling to the marketplace. The USGBC is letting us know the products used in our buildings should be transparent in the way in which they are produced, where the raw product may originate and how a supplier may fit within the supply chain.
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Thomas Taylor, a 30-year veteran of the construction industry and noted expert on sustainability, is the general manager of St. Louis-based Vertegy. To learn more about Vertegy, visit www.vertegyconsultants.com.