LEED®

What is LEED?

LEED® which is managed by the U.S. Green building council (USGBC) and the Canadian Green building Council (CaGBC) it is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable  buildings.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Green Building Rating System™ encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.

LEED®  is a third-party certification program and an internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. It provides building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance.

LEED®  promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health:

Certification is based on the total point score achieved following an independent review and an audit of selected Credits. There are four levels of certification: certified, silver, gold and platinum.

Why Certify?

A rapidly-growing number of private sector organizations and governments are adopting LEED® certification in their policies, programming and operations, with the goal of achieving and demonstrating sustainability. The reasons for certifying projects include:

• Gain recognition for green building efforts
• Validate achievement through third party review
• Qualify for a growing array of government incentives
• Contribute to a growing green building knowledge base

LEED® -NC 2.0(New Construction & Major Renovations) Designed to be applied to Commercial and Institutional buildings that are either new or undergoing major renovations with a focus on office buildings.

LEED® -CI (Commercial Interiors) designed to address the specifics of tenant spaces primarily in office and institutional buildings. LEED® -CI provides the opportunity for building tenants to design and certify high performance, healthy, durable, affordable and environmentally sound workplaces.

LEED® DOES NOT CERTIFY, PROMOTE, OR ENDORSE PRODUCTS OF INDIVIDUAL COMPANIES, PRODUCTS DO PLAY A ROLE AND CAN HELP WITH EARNING CREDITS,AS CALCULATION S ARE MADE USUALLY BASED ON OVERALL COST OF THE COMBINATION OF ALL MATERIALS IN THE PROJECT

MR ID Credit 2  LEED®

Construction Waste Management

Divert 50%  from Landfill  Or  Divert 75% from Landfill
1 point
Intent
Divert construction, demolition, and packaging debris from landfill disposal. Redirect recyclable recovered resources back to the manufacturing process. Redirect reusable materials to appropriate sites.
Requirements
Develop and implement a construction waste management plan, quantifying material diversion goals. Recycle and/or salvage at least 50% (or 75% for next level) of construction, demolition and packaging debris. Calculation may be done by weight or volume, but must be consistent throughout.
How Appalachian Contributes
Packaging from the Appalachian product can be diverted from landfill by sending to recycling.  Plastic strapping and cardboard are recyclable in most communities.  However if foam between the layers of flooring is not recyclable in your community alternatives are available as a special request.

EQ ID Credit 4  LEED® Low-Emitting Materials:

Credit 4.1 Adhesives & Sealants

Intent
Reduce the quantity of indoor air contaminants that are odorous, potentially irritat¬ing and/or harmful to the comfort and well-being of installers and occupants.
What is a VOC?
Volatile organic compounds (VOC). A carbon compound that vaporizes at normal room temperature. VOCs contribute to air pollution directly and through atmospheric photochemical reactions.
Requirements
The VOC content of adhesives, sealants and sealant primers used must be less than the VOC content limits of the State of California’s South Coast Air Quality Manage¬ment District (SCAQMD) Rule #1168, June 2006. For the Environmental choice program certification for flooring recommended TVOC is 0.5mg/m3.

How Appalachian Contributes

* Testing equipment can only detect greater thus in the ASTM D6007-02 a values are slower than the limit of detection of the analytical equipment. 

In combination with low VOC wood flooring adhesives, staples  nails this makes Appalachian able to contribute to low emitting material choice.

Third Party lab results from Forintek are available to identify the emission rates completed under ASTM standards D5116-06 and ASTM D6007-02

Credit 4.2 Paints and coatings