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LEED Certified Products: How can we Certify our Products for LEED?

Question:


Tony asks: We have a recycled product that contains 90% recycled glass... How can we certify our product for LEED?

Answer:


Hi Tony, at the moment, the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Certification system does not certify green building products or building materials.

However, if your product is comprised of 90% recycled content then it may be an excellent product for sustainability experts and LEED APs to consider when they are choosing from the green building materials and green products that contribute towards earning LEED Credits under the different LEED green building rating systems (such as New Construction, Commercial Interiors, Core and Shell and Operations and Maintenance).

For instance, LEED's recycled materials requirements in LEED for Commercial Interiors (soon to be Interior Design and Construction) fall under Materials and Resources Credits MRc4.1 and MRc4.2 which, if the project is maximally compliant with these credits, can earn up to (2) points total towards LEED Certification. The intent of these credits is to increase the demand for building products that incorporate recycled materials, thereby reducing the impact that would result from the extraction and processing of virgin materials.

The requirements call for the project to use 10% or 20% (MRc4.1 or MRc4.2, respectively) of the total materials cost (including furnishings) on post-consumer and pre-consumer materials. Recycled content does not include mechanical, electrical, plumbing and specialty items and components. If 30% of the total materials cost is recycled content, under MRc4.2, an additional point for Exemplary Performance under LEED is awarded.

Another example is the Materials and Resources "Certified Wood Credit", which is reserved for wood products approved by certification programs that are, after thorough objective analysis by the USGBC, deemed compliant with the benchmark would be recognized by LEED. This was revised in September of 2008 (In prior versions of LEED, only Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified products were compliant with LEED). More information here >>>.

Hope this helps,
Green-Buildings.com

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Comments

LEED Certified furnishings

Tue, 05/05/2009 - 16:47 — Anonymous (not verified)

Hello,

Can you tell us some of the ways we can can go about posting our FSC certified recyled furniture on the acceptable LEED products list. I understand that our products may meet LEED's recycled materials requirements in LEED for Commercial Interiors (soon to be Interior Design and Construction. We are interested in providing designers with Materials and Resources Credits MRc4.1 and MRc4.2 which, for projects that are maximally compliant with these credits, can earn up to (2) points total towards LEED Certification.

Thank you for your help.

Regards,
Chris Bruning
Groovystuff

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