Following LEED’s lead for building materials

August 1, 2010

Obtaining the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® certification has become a quest—even a pillar of corporate policy—for some manufacturers and other businesses that view the platinum, gold, or silver certification as the definitive standard—or Green standard, if you will. But getting there is not a walk on a vegetative roof. It involves real changes and painstaking documentation. Too, the requirements can be a little difficult to decipher.

Crystals, the complex steel-framed centerpiece of Las Vegas’ CityCenter retail and entertainment development is LEED Gold rated. The project is also a recipient of AISC’s 2010 IDEAS2 building award. Photo courtesy of Schuff Steel Co., Phoenix.

So you’re expanding your plant to house that new press or other capital equipment, or you’ve outgrown your building and want to build another. So what is the buzz, you wonder, about this LEED® certification, and should you try to achieve it for your building or expansion? If so, what would it take?

Obtaining the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED certification has become a quest—even a pillar of corporate policy—for some manufacturers and other businesses that view the platinum, gold, or silver certification as the definitive standard—or “green standard,” if you will.

Power management manufacturer Eaton Corp., Cleveland, has achieved LEED Gold certification for several of its facilities. The decision to pursue it was made both for environmental and business reasons, according to John White, director of energy management and sustainability solutions, for Eaton.

“We think building LEED buildings is a wise thing to do, both from an environmental perspective and a business perspective,” White said. “It cost us only an additional 1-1/2 percent to make our Pittsburgh headquarters a LEED Gold facility, and we project an investment payback of 2-1/2 to three years, mainly from the energy savings,” he said.

“Also, we play a role in delivering products and services in the energy efficiency and building market. We think if you’re going to ask other people to purchase products that go into LEED buildings, you should probably be doing the same yourself—lead by example.”

White added, “We have green teams in most of our buildings now. The building becomes kind of a rallying point for a lot of our sustainability efforts.”

Getting There Not a Walk in the Park

But getting there is not a walk on a vegetative roof. It involves real changes and painstaking documentation. Too, the requirements can be a little difficult to decipher.

A manufacturer hoping to achieve, say, LEED Silver certification on a new building, major renovation, or existing building needs to clock at least 50 points (see LEED Credits).

One of the five major program categories is called Materials and Resources (see Materials and Resources). A manufacturer can score up to 14 credits by meeting all of those goals. One of the areas (Credit 4) in which a company can achieve points is by purchasing building materials with recycled content.

The requirement is designed to increase demand for building products that incorporate recycled content materials, thereby reducing impacts resulting from extraction and processing of virgin materials, according to USGBC. A company earns 1 point for using building materials with 10 percent recycled content, and 2 points for 20 percent recycled content.

But Here’s Where It Gets Tricky. “Use materials with recycled content such that the sum of postconsumer recycled content plus 1/2 of the preconsumer content constitutes at least 10 or 20 percent, based on cost, of the total value of the materials in the project,” according to the guidebook, “LEED 2009 for New Construction and Major Renovations.” The recycled content value of a material assembly is determined by weight. The recycled fraction of the assembly is then multiplied by the cost of assembly to determine the recycled content value.

OK, whaaa?

USGBC defines postconsumer material as waste material generated by households or by commercial, industrial, and institutional facilities in their role as end users of the product, which can no longer be used for its intended purpose. It defines preconsumer material as material diverted from the waste stream during the manufacturing process, also commonly referred to as post-industrial waste.

Scrap or other materials that have been reworked or reground that can be reclaimed within the same process that generated it are excluded.

Steel’s LEED

Photo courtesy of Wausau Window and Wall Systems, Wausau, Wis.

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), Washington, D.C.; American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), Chicago; and the Steel Recycling Institute (SRI), Pittsburgh, provide an example of how manufacturers and other businesses constructing a building using steel can calculate the building material’s recycled content.

One of the two major types of steelmaking processes uses an electric arc furnace (EAF). Beams and columns, channels, and angles are examples of typical products made in an EAF.

In 2007, the year that it was last measured, EAF mills consumed 34,871,600 tons of postconsumer scrap in the production of 61,329,700 tons of raw steel during 2007, or 56.9 percent. In addition, the EAF mills consumed 19,247,000 tons of preconsumer scrap in the production of that 61,329,700 tons of raw steel, or 31.4 percent.

So a steel product made in an EAF uses approximately 56.9 percent post-consumer recycled content and 31.4 percent pre-consumer content by weight.

Because steel (the material) and steel (the building product) are the same, the value of the steel building product is directly multiplied by steel’s recycled content:

Steel recycled content value = (Value of steel product) x (Postconsumer waste % + 1/2 preconsumer %).

Let’s say you purchase $10,000 worth of wide-flange structural steel framing for your building. You would calculate the recycled content value this way:

($10,000) [56.9 % + (½) 31.4%] or ($10,000) (72.6%) = $7,260. Therefore, the steel framing Is a possible contributor to both the 10 and 20 percent recycled content credits.

Aluminum’s LEED

Wausau Window and Wall Systems, Wausau, Wis., now fabricates all of its products using aluminum extrusions exclusively from secondary billet that contains at least 70 percent total recycled content. Depending on the customer specification and extrusion source, Wausau’s recycled aluminum extrusions have a recycled content of 42 to 69 percent for LEED credits, using the weight-based sum of postconsumer recycled content plus 1/2 of the preconsumer content, the company says.

The window company offers an example; however, as used in a new building pursuing LEED certification, windows contain more than just aluminum framing. This example shows how framing is included with other window assembly components: involves the purchase of a series of windows for a new facility or expansion:

Total project values are weighted averages for each component calculated independently. Quantities are taken from the bill of materials.

So, assuming the windows for a specific building are quantified on the general contractor’s Schedule of Values to cost $500,000, and in this particular case, the pre- and post-consumer recycled content of each component fell near the midpoint of the cited ranges, the LEED combined recycled content would be calculated as 21.3 percent.

Value of Recycled Content = ($500,000) (21.3%) = $106,500. When added to recycled content values from other building materials, this value contributes to the 10 and 20 percent recycled content goals of the project seeking LEED certification.

Caveat: The USGBC and its certification affiliate, the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI), warn that it does not certify materials alone, just people and buildings. The materials are evaluated in their applications and as a percentage of purchase price.

The organization advises companies to do the following: “Establish a project goal for recycled content materials, and identify material suppliers that can achieve this goal. During construction, ensure that the specified recycled content materials are installed. Consider a range of environmental, economic, and performance attributes when selecting products and materials.