DON’T BE LED ASTRAY, BE A LEED LEADER INSTEAD


Here, Flowcrete outlines how to ensure building projects meet LEED credentials.


Sustainability is a hot topic in the construction industry right now, architects want to create environmentally-friendly buildings, material suppliers want to demonstrate how their products are green and progressive, and end-users want to know that their facility is at the cutting edge of sustainable technology.


However, it is important to bear in mind that despite many advertising slogans and marketing to the contrary, specific building systems and materials are not themselves LEED- certified - they can help building owners achieve LEED credits that then count toward LEED certification but this doesn’t make them ‘certified’ in and of themselves.


And it is not as simple as just getting enough credits to be certified. Before examining which credit strategies will earn points for a project, which then determines which certification level a building falls into, it must first meet all LEED prerequisites. While the credits that developers want to pursue are designed to be flexible and offer a number of options, the prerequisites can’t, these are the bare minimum that buildings need to meet in order to be eligible for LEED certification.


For example, ‘construction activity pollution prevention’ is a prerequisite that requires projects to implement plans to reduce pollution by controlling soil erosion, waterway sedimentation and airborne dust.


Once the prerequisites have been met, you can look at the credits the project can achieve. The different credit options are grouped together into various categories, such as Location & Transportation, Material & Resources and Indoor Environmental Quality.


To this end, suppliers, builders, architects and owners will all frequently tout the green credentials of their products, services or facilities as loudly as possible. The big name that many will use to support these claims is LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a rating system set up by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to assess the environmental credentials of a building, and validate sustainable building strategies and practices used in the design, construction and operation of said building.


10 | SUSTAINABILITY FOCUS


Different project types will have different credit options available to them, but so long as your project fits within that LEED category, developers are free to go for whichever credits they like. The credits have been devised in such a way that particular ones will pair well with other prerequisites or credit options to provide synergistic benefits.


The point scoring credits can range from one-pointers such as the ‘clean construction’ option, which requires the implementation of a plan to reduce particulate matter emissions from vehicles, equipment and power generation. In the middle of the spectrum are categories like ‘innovation’, which can award five points if the project can prove ‘significant,


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