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Sustainable Practices in LEED Guidelines

Mar 27, 2025

LEED Materials & Resources Presentation

Overview

  • Focus on reducing global climate change impact through sustainable building practices.
  • Emphasizes enhancing human health, biodiversity, and sustainable material cycles.

LEED System Goals

  • Enhance individual human health.
  • Protect water resources.
  • Promote sustainable materials.
  • Enhance community quality of life.
  • Build a green economy.

Materials and Resources (MR) Credits (13 possible)

Prerequisites

  • Storage and Collection of Recyclables: Required to manage waste effectively and conserve resources.
  • Construction and Demolition Waste Management Planning: Required to minimize landfill burden.

Credits

  • Building Life-Cycle Impact Reduction (5 pts): Encourages adaptive reuse and optimization of environmental product performance.
  • Building Product Disclosure and Optimization - Environmental Product Declarations (2 pts): Promotes the use of products with verified life-cycle impacts.
  • Sourcing of Raw Materials (2 pts): Encourages the use of responsibly sourced materials.
  • Material Ingredients (2 pts): Incentivizes the use of products with known, less harmful chemical ingredients.

Building Life-Cycle Impact Reduction

  • Encourages reuse and optimization.
  • Use of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to measure impact.
  • Demonstrate reduction in global warming potential and other environmental impacts.

Environmental Product Declarations (EPD)

  • Intent: Encourage use of products with available life-cycle information.
  • Certification systems include OEKO-TEX, RDS, and GREENGUARD.
  • Discusses cradle to cradle vs cradle to grave approaches.

Responsible Sourcing of Raw Materials

  • Points awarded for using certified bio-based and recycled materials.
  • Pre-consumer and post-consumer recycled content definitions provided.

Material Ingredients

  • Intent: Use products with lifecycle transparency and minimal harmful substances.
  • Options for credit include ingredient reporting and supply chain optimization.
  • Avoidance of harmful chemicals like PFAS.

Construction and Demolition Waste Management

  • Intent: Reduce landfill waste and promote recycling.
  • Credits available for diverting a significant percentage of waste and reducing total waste volume.

Regional Priority Credits

  • Encourages addressing local environmental and health priorities.
  • Credits depend on achieving region-specific criteria.

Sustainable Purchasing and Building Practices

  • Emphasize reducing, reusing, recycling, and sustainable sourcing.
  • Highlights sustainable building options and practices such as rammed earth and straw bale construction.

Sustainable Leather

  • Focus on reducing toxic chemicals in leather processing.
  • Encourages sourcing from sustainable farms and reducing environmental harm.

Strategies for Waste Management

  • Implement recycling plans and audits.
  • Composting and sustainable purchasing policies are essential.

Additional Resources and Links

  • Includes links to sustainable building videos and resources for further learning.

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