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The topic of materials is one that spans every phase of a building’s life cycle. It includes considerations about construction waste, specifying materials for the building’s structure in the design and construction phase, making green cleaning choices while the building is in use and determining what happens to the building in the demolition phase.

Quick facts about construction waste:

• Construction and demolition waste constitutes about 40 percent of the total solid waste stream in the United States and about 25 percent of the total waste stream in the European Union.
• In aggregate, LEED projects are responsible for diverting more than 80 million tons of waste from landfills, and this volume is expected to grow to 540 million tons by 2030.

Materials decisions are impacted by an array of stakeholders who work with the built environment and those who support it, as well as by those who work, learn, live and play within those buildings.

What LEED does with materials

Since its initial launch, LEED has always addressed materials, and the newest version of the rating system is no different. LEED v4 brings a shift that goes beyond materials decisions focusing on single attributes and moves the market toward conversations about optimizing environmental, social and health impacts and gaining a better understanding of the trade-offs.

The LEED Building Design and Construction materials credits and prerequisites include:

• Prerequisite: Storage and Collection of Recyclables
• Prerequisite: Construction and Demolition Waste Management Planning
• Prerequisite: PBT Source Reduction—Mercury
• Credit (5–6 points): Building Life-Cycle Impact Reduction
• Credit (2 points): Building Product Disclosure and Optimization—Environmental Product Declarations
• Credit (2 points): Building Product Disclosure and Optimization—Sourcing of Raw Materials
• Credit (2 points): Building Product Disclosure and Optimization—Material Ingredients
• Credit (1 point): PBT Source Reduction—Mercury
• Credit (2 points): PBT Source Reduction—Lead, Cadmium and Copper
• Credit (2 points): Furniture and Medical Furnishings
• Credit (1 point): Design for Flexibility
• Credit (2 points): Construction and Demolition Waste Management

The LEED Operations and Maintenance materials credits and prerequisites include:

• Prerequisite: Ongoing Purchasing and Waste Policy
• Prerequisite: Facility Maintenance and Renovation Policy       
• Credit (1 point): Purchasing—Ongoing           
• Credit (1 point): Purchasing—Lamps  
• Credit (2 points): Purchasing—Facility Management and Renovation
• Credit (2 points): Solid Waste Management—Ongoing
• Credit (2 points): Solid Waste Management—Facility Maintenance and Renovation

Join USGBC at Greenbuild 2017 in Boston, India and China, to learn more about LEED and materials. In addition to educations sessions, Greenbuild in Boston and India will feature expo halls where attendees can interact with the newest and most innovative products the market has to offer.

The Boston Greenbuild event will also include a special session on LEED v4 and its materials and resources section:

Course: LEED v4 and Materials: Interactive Session

Thurs., November 9 from 5–6 p.m.

During this session, attendees will get an overview of the LEED v4 materials section, learning what has changed, what’s been added and how to implement key strategies, including reading and comparing EPDs.

Register for Greenbuild Boston

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Gather with green building champions, at one of our upcoming Women in Green events at Greenbuild 2017.

Greenbuild China: Women in Green Power Breakfast
October 18 from 7:30–9 a.m.
Learn more

Greenbuild India: Women in Green Power Lunch
November 3 from 1–2:30 p.m.
Learn more

Greenbuild Boston: Women in Green Power Breakfast
November 9 from 7–9 p.m.
Learn more

Women are change agents in business, in education, in health care, in technology and cutting-edge research, in service of our common defense, in government and in our homes. Without the powerful voices of women seeking change, so much progress would be stifled or delayed. Attend Women in Green to hear from groundbreaking women who will call upon attendees to speak up as individuals and as a group to achieve change in the workplace and the world.

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Registration is now open for Greenbuild India. Held annually in the United States since 2002, the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo is the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green building. This November, the award-winning event will be held for the first time in Mumbai, India.

EDGE and resource efficiency in buildings will be front and center at Greenbuild India, where GBCI is offering its full-day EDGE Technical Workshop. This workshop helps EDGE project teams understand the EDGE standard, use the software application and navigate the certification process. It also prepares EDGE Expert candidates to take the EDGE exam. 

This is the last in-person EDGE Technical Workshop that GBCI will be offering in India this year, so register now to claim your seat.

The EDGE Technical Workshop is not included in the conference pass for Greenbuild India. After the workshop, attend the conference for two days of speakers, networking opportunities, an expo hall featuring the latest green building products and technologie, and tours of Mumbai’s green buildings.

EDGE Technical Workshop

Date: November 1, 2016, 9 a.m.–6 p.m.
GBCI continuing education credit: 8 hours
Cost: 7,500 INR (early bird price, for registrations before Sept. 8)

Please email GBCI with any questions.

Register to attend the workshop

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WaterBuild 2016, the Water Summit at Greenbuild, kicked off its first of a three-year program series last year in Los Angeles. As we gear up for the 2017 Summit in Boston on November 7, here’s a look back at WaterBuild 2016.

“Water, water everywhere…”

A more sustainable built environment can address myriad water issues, from quality to quantity to equitable access. As 2016 summit keynote speaker Dr. Michael Webber said, our world is built around needing the right amount of water in the right place, at the right temperature, at the right time. Having too much, too little or water at the wrong time or in the wrong phase (ice, not water—or water, not ice), can create big, expensive and often energy-intensive consequences.

Eighteenth-century poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge shared wise words in his “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” writing “Water, water, everywhere, / Nor any drop to drink.” The 2016 summit launched in a similar context, on the coast of the Pacific ocean, but in the midst of California’s historic drought.

Consequently, a number of discussions at the summit focused on water scarcity and how green buildings and infrastructure can help. Greenbuild 2016 also purchased Water Restoration Certificates to offset water use at the Los Angeles convention center and created a water footprint for the conference, tracking consumption from food, hotels, paper, freight fuel and venues (read more about the greening of Greenbuild 2016).

Three years of WaterBuild

WaterBuild 2016 convened changemakers in Los Angeles to workshop ideas, discuss challenges and inspire solutions for reducing water use, providing healthy drinking water and managing for water resilience. USGBC’s Chief of Engineering, Brendan Owens, introduced the summit series by detailing how WaterBuild will explore ways in which the green building industry can spur more meaningful transformation in important areas of water quality, access, efficiency and abundance.

Webber’s upbeat keynote presentation covered the gamut of water constraints and connections between energy, infrastructure and society. He gave a hopeful outlook on long-term sustainability through better water policy and pricing, collaborative integrated planning and appropriate technology deployment.

After three engaging educational sessions, the 200+ participants convened for lunch and to admire the work of the Land Art Generator Initiative, which uses public art to help the public experience water and energy infrastructure in new and beautiful ways.

At this first of three WaterBuild summits, a few dozen participants joined a unique local issue charrette. USGBC and the USGBC Los Angeles community teamed up with L.A. county and city leadership to explore policy solutions toward net-zero water. Future WaterBuild summits will repeat this opportunity to roll up your sleeves and dive into the details of a local water issue.

In a parallel track, WaterBuild featured a first-ever Pecha Kucha session. Eight presenters deftly raced through rapid-fire presentations covering topics of water quality, quantity, equity, policy, industry and equity. One presenter told a heartfelt story from Flint, Michigan, later covered in a USGBC+ article. Another highlight was an abridged version of the presenter’s TED Talk. Still another, by our beloved colleague, the late Bill Worthen, focused on on-site water treatment.

At the end of the day, WaterBuild participants joined hundreds of others for a combined closing plenary to conclude the day with celebration and make a tribute to President Obama’s eight years of leadership on green building, climate and sustainability.

Reconvening in Boston

On November 7, we’ll convene again for the second event in the WaterBuild series. This year’s focus is water resilience, so we’ll see additional attention to water-related opportunities in technology, policy and infrastructure. The format will be very much like 2016’s WaterBuild Summit, including keynotes, a practical charrette for a development site in Boston, educational sessions and the Pecha Kucha sessions, which will have even more focus of achieving ongoing impact.

USGBC staff and the volunteer organizing committee have come together to plan another impactful day that gives attendees the knowledge and ability to make positive change. 

I am honored to be part of WaterBuild 2017, as a member of the LEED Water Technical Advisory Group, my colleagues and I work to leverage our collective knowledge to contribute to one of the world’s most amazing instruments for change. We have a lot of momentum to continue to build upon, and our water future has not yet been written. Let’s write it together. I invite you to join us on our WaterBuild journey.

Learn more and register

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The Earth’s climate is changing, and 97 percent of climate scientists agree that it is likely due to human activities. So where does that leave us and the rest of the building industry?

Buildings account for more than one-quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), according to the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction. Add in other infrastructure and activities, such as transportation, that are associated with buildings, and that number jumps.

By building green, we can reduce the impact our buildings have on contributing to climate change, while also building resilience into our homes and communities.

LEED vs climate change

One of the goals that guided the development of LEED v4 was reversing a LEED building’s contribution to global climate change. High-performing green buildings, particularly LEED-certified buildings, play a key role in reducing the negative climate impacts of the built environment. For this reason, 35 of the 100 total points in LEED v4 are distributed to reward climate change mitigation strategies.

The LEED process addresses a structure’s planning, design, construction, operations and end of life as well as considering energy, water, indoor environmental quality, materials selection and location. Green buildings reduce landfill waste, enable alternative transportation use and encourage retention and creation of vegetated land areas and roofs.

LEED rewards thoughtful decisions about building location, with credits that encourage compact development and connection with transit and amenities. When a building consumes less water, the energy otherwise required to withdraw, treat and pump that water from the source to the building are avoided. Additionally, less transport of materials to and from the building cuts associated fuel consumption.

Here are some of the ways that LEED weighs the various credits and strategies so that LEED projects can mitigate their contribution to global climate change:  

• GHG Emissions Reduction from Building Operations Energy Use: To target energy use reductions directly associated with building operations. This includes all building systems and operations within the building or associated grounds that rely on electricity or other fuel sources for energy consumption.

• GHG Emissions Reduction from Transportation Energy Use: To target energy use reductions associated with the transportation of building occupants, employees, customers, visitors, business travel, etc.

• GHG Emissions Reduction from the Embodied Energy of Materials and Water Use: To target GHG-emissions reductions associated with the energy use and processes required in the extraction, production, transportation, conveyance, manufacturing, assembly, distribution, use, posttreatment, and disposal of materials, products and processed water. Any measures that directly reduce the use of potable water, non-potable water, or raw materials (e.g. reduced packaging, building reuse) will indirectly reduce energy as well because of the embodied energy associated with these product life cycles.

• GHG Emissions Reduction from a Cleaner Energy Supply: To target actions and measures that support a cleaner, less GHG-emissions intensive energy supply and a greater reliance on renewable sources of energy.

• Global Warming Potential Reduction from Non-Energy Related Drivers: To address the non-energy related climate change drivers (e.g. albedo, carbon sinks, non-energy related GHG emissions) and identifies actions that reduce these contributions to climate change (e.g. land use changes, heat island reduction, reforestation, refrigerant purchases).

Some of the top credits in LEED v4 BD+C, ID+C, and O+M that are associated with mitigating global climate change:

• LT Credit: Surrounding Density and Diverse Uses
• LT Credit: Access to Quality Transit / Alternative Transportation
• WE Credit: Outdoor Water Use Reduction
• WE Credit: Indoor Water Use Reduction
• EA Credit: Optimize Energy Performance
• EA Credit: Renewable Energy Production / Renewable Energy and Carbon Offsets
• EA Credit: Enhanced Refrigerant Management
• EA Credit: Green Power and Carbon Offsets
• MR Credit: Building Life-Cycle Impact Reduction / Interiors Life-Cycle Impact Reduction

To learn more about LEED and how it can help reduce the impact of global climate change, head to Greenbuild in Boston this November 8–10 (or check out our Greenbuild events in China or India). Greenbuild features LEED workshops, hundreds of green building educational sessions and inspiring speakers and events.

Register for Greenbuild

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This excerpt is from “Madison Park High School Green Building Tech Club,” by Jen Cole, published on June 6 on the USGBC Massachusetts website.

As part of the Road to Greenbuild, USGBC Massachusetts has begun a legacy project at Madison Park High School called the Green Building Tech Club. The after-school program, starting in September, will run from 3 to 5 p.m. once a week and introduce and prepare the underrepresented community at the vocational high school to “green economy” careers in facilities management.

Students involved will be engaged with presentations from various local professionals, a trip to the Expo Hall at Greenbuild 2017, tours of high-performance green buildings in our area and mentorship from Wentworth Institute of Technology Environmental Collaborative.

Read the full article

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Registration is now open for both Greenbuild India and Greenbuild China. For the first time, the world’s largest green building conference will be held in Mumbai and Shanghai, in addition to Boston.

Greenbuild India: November 2–5, 2017. Register for Greenbuild India.
Greenbuild China: October 17–18, 2017. Register for Greenbuild China.

What do the events offer?

Delivering sustainability solutions, Greenbuild is the ideal space to learn about innovative green building strategies, products and services. It’s also a great opportunity for LEED professionals to earn continuing education (CE) credits.

Both events will feature:

• Inspiring speakers
• Invaluable networking opportunities
• Industry showcases
• LEED workshops with global industry leaders, experts and frontline professionals

Learn the latest about LEED v4 and its ability to impact energy, water and human health. Get introduced to LEED for Cities, the new Arc digital performance platform, the EDGE green building certification system for new residential and commercial buildings in emerging markets, the SITES rating system for sustainable landscape design and Parksmart for parking structures.

Greenbuild is unique in its ability to showcase the globally recognized LEED rating system for sustainable design, construction, and operations and maintenance. Today LEED, a product of the global green building industry, is found in more than 160 countries and territories.

See the full program of Greenbuild India sessions, and view the Greenbuild China agenda.

Who attends Greenbuild?

Network with hundreds of global building professionals focused on the global green building market: architects, builders and contractors, building owners, developers, educators, engineers, green building thought leaders, government planners and regulators, interior designers, real estate investors, sustainability officers, and utility executives.

Register for Greenbuild today