20B — June 24 - July 14, 2016 — Green Buildings — M id A tlantic
Real Estate Journal
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G reen B uildings
Building Material Human Hazard & Exposure Assessment USGBC announces new LEED pilot credit
( U S G B C ) announced a new LEED pi l ot cred- it—Building Material Hu- man Hazard & Exposure Assessment, wh i c h e n - W
“LEED v4, the latest version of the LEED green building system, has begun a shift in how we think about health and building materials,” said S cot Horst , chief product officer, USGBC. “We have a focus on transparency and optimization so specifiers can know what they are using and can reward innovation. But understanding how a mate- rial impacts human health requires a full understanding of hazard and exposure. The new pilot credit is a first step toward evaluating exposure by encouraging product in- ventories in order to prioritize
decision making.” The pilot credit seeks to reward manufacturers who perform hazard and exposure assessments that can serve as a basis for developing prod- ucts designed to minimize human health impacts during installation and use of the products. These assessments can, in turn, be an important consideration for alternative assessment of building mate- rials. By requiring exposure to be considered during product development, this pilot begins to make linkages between the product’s ingredient inven- tory and hazard assessment
required by the existing Ma- terials Ingredients credit and performance testing required by LEED’s Low Emitting Ma- terials credits. The Hazard & Exposure pi- lot credit continues USGBC’s work to advance LEED users’ knowledge and understand- ing of the materials used to build and operate buildings. USGBC’s ultimate aim is that project teams have a full and complete picture of building materials and products—all in one place—which will help enable transparent, informed decisions around important at- tributes of materials and prod-
ucts used in our offices, homes, schools and other structures. This pilot credit was de- veloped by USGBC in con- junction with the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and its members, as part of the partnership announced in 2014. The partnership was established to expand collabo- ration between suppliers and specifiers, leverage scientific expertise and make LEED a more effective tool to deliver positive economic, environ- mental and social outcomes. This initiative acknowledges USGBC’s success in leading the transformation of the built environment and sets up a pathway to take advantage of the materials science exper- tise of ACC and its members. “ACC welcomes the new pilot credit, which rewards products that have undergone rigorous and scientific hazard and exposure assessments,” said Debra Phillips, vice presi- dent, ACC. “Through Respon- sible Care, ACC members support scientific and system- atic approaches to managing and continuously improving the safety of their products. ACC members also undertake third-party verification of their systems and approaches. This new credit brings such a sci- entific, systematic and third- party validated approach to the important issue of health.” All USGBC members are eligible to submit pilot credits for consideration; pilot credits are evaluated based on appli- cability to the goals of LEED, relative impact compared to other LEED credits or pilot credits, technical rigor and achievability. “Today, exposure informa- tion and the assumptions that go into it aren’t required to be shared by manufacturers,” added Horst. “This new pilot credit will facilitate informa- tion sharing that will help us guide future credit writing.” To fulfill the credit require- ments, LEED projects must submit product documenta- tion from manufacturers, including calculations and assumptions, to GBCI, the third-party verification body for LEED. This information will be combined with data from other ongoing pilots and credits and synthesized by USGBC and GBCI to inform technical development of this pilot and other materials- related LEED credits. n
ASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Green Building Council
Scot Horst
courages project teams and manufacturers to assess hu- man health related exposure scenarios for products during their installation and use phases.
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