Do you know about LEED Pilot Credits? According to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) the LEED Pilot Credits are described as follows. “The LEED Pilot Credit Library is intended to facilitate the introduction of new prerequisites and credits to LEED through stakeholder engagement and collaboration on the testing and analysis of proposed requirements. This process allows USGBC to refine credits through LEED project evaluations before they complete the balloting process for introduction into LEED.”
These credits are available to the project LEED Associate Professional (AP) and fall under the Innovation in Design category. Currently there are 41 LEED Pilot Credits of which there are three that pertain to woodworking.
LEED Pilot Credit 20: Recycled Content for Non-Structural Materials
The intent of this credit is “To reduce the impacts resulting from extracting and processing virgin materials by increasing demand for building products that incorporate recycled content.” This is similar to the existing Material & Resources credit 4; however, it is limited to non-structural products. It also adds the option of purchases from manufacturer’s that have a closed loop recycling and take-back programs.
LEED Pilot Credit 21: Low-Emitting Interiors
The intent of this credit is to “Reduce the exposure of building occupants to potentially hazardous chemical contaminates which adversely affect air quality, human health, productivity and the environment.” This credit allows panels that meet the California Air Resource Board (CARB) phase II requirements which are currently not allowed in the existing Indoor Environmental Quality credit 4.4.
I see this as a positive step in clearing up the confusion that CARB panels do not necessarily equate to No Added Urea-Formaldehyde panels in the LEED programs. Under the CARB plan they allow for panels that have applied for special exemption from the Executive Officer of the Air Resource Board which have either Ultra Low Emission Formaldehyde or No Added Formaldehyde but have not been third party certified.
LEED Pilot Credit 43: Certified Products
The most current credit which came out on June 15, 2011 has already stirred up an old controversy. The intent of this credit is “To increase the use of products and materials with life cycles, ingredients and attributes understood and optimized to improve overall environmental, economic and social performance.” Part of this new pilot credit is a radical change from the Materials & Resources credit 7 and allows the use of wood from Sustainable Forestry Initiative, American Tree Farm, PEFC, CSA as well as Forest Stewardship Council.
In less than two days the friction started. Jason Grant of Jason Grant Consulting and the Sierra Club Forest Certification Team wrote a letter entitled “USGBC lowers the bar on wood & forests in LEED.” While comparing FSC to the various wood certification systems he says, “And oh yes, let’s marginalize standards that actually require performance well above the status quo relative to LCA-based approaches that require no change in performance – all in the name of transparency.”
This all started several years ago when USGBC was considering a change to the infamous Certified Wood credit by using a benchmark system and potentially allowing forest certification systems in addition to FSC. After 4,000+ comments and four open comment periods this system did not pass the USGBC membership; however, this new pilot credit has done just that.
Was this done to mitigate the pending restraint of trade issue USGBC was facing? Did this come about due to the pressure the United States Congress and Senate was applying to USGBC? I’m not sure we will ever know, but obviously the hornets nest has been wacked with a stick.
As an FSC certified firm I would think that they might welcome this new credit as there materials have the potential of being worth two points vs. one point for Certified Wood.