Moffit adds, “The standards for LEED certification will continue to evolve, but it’s apparent that the push toward transparency is unlikely to go away. This is important, because more people are going to be asking, ‘What exactly is in this product, and what’s it going to do to me and our environment?’ You have to be prepared to answer that question reasonably and knowledgeably.” (An ad-hoc committee of ACMA’s Green Composites Council is planning to launch a series of webinars that can help to educate composites pros on LEED v4. Look for more information in upcoming issues of Composites Manufacturing.)
Moffit points out that the composites industry is already committed to the overall concept of product transparency, through efforts to produce life cycle assessments and life cycle inventories that share information on composite products and processes. “It’s just that what’s being asked for now goes beyond that,” he says. “These kinds of requirements aren’t going away. More end users are focused on making transparency a regular part of their project plans.”
Inside LEED v4
A few months ago, a global architecture, engineering and interior design firm specializing in the healthcare and education markets sent product manufacturers a letter. The end of the first paragraph read, “Transparent information related to product content and direct health hazards of building components is imperative.” It went on to say that by Jan. 1, 2015, only products supported by HPDs or that show material transparency in a similar way “will be allowed in our library and selected for inclusion in our products.”
That kind of communication underscores an important point. The onus is on composites firms to get their materials into the mainstream, particularly in the building and construction market. And as they try, architects are becoming increasingly wary of false-claim “green washing.” The composites industry can use this sentiment as an opportunity to show its abilities and benefits, Moffit says.
In that sense, LEED v4 encourages a shift from prescriptive-based to performance-based requirements. “The challenge as an industry is to get more engaged with the design/build community and promote composites through transparency,” Moffit says. “Proponents need to demonstrate how and where composites are used and why they are successful in these applications.”
After analyzing LEED v4, composites experts agree, opportunities exist for composites companies under almost every category. Some categories are easy to draw a connection between the LEED requirement and the composite part, such as the use of rapidly renewable content or recycled content. Other requirements aren’t defined outright, but drive use of composites through application needs such as use of fiberglass tanks and piping in water conservation and re-use systems.
But LEED v4 points require legwork. For example, for a project to gain points in the Materials & Resources category, Schmidtchen says, a composites firm might have to refer to a Material Safety Data Sheet from a resin supplier, or go back to a supplier and say that Chemical Abstracts Service numbers are needed. “Basically, it can seem like a supply-chain research exercise,” he says.
Timeliness of that exercise is important, too. Steve Brauneis, LEED certification quality assurance specialist for the Green Building Certification Institute, says that when documenting LEED credits in general, and materials credits in particular, “documentation needs to be procured from subcontractors and contractors before they’ve left the job site.”
Moffit believes that in specific LEED categories, such as Material & Resources and Energy & Atmosphere, composites companies are well-suited to gain business because of the performance and lifetime cost benefits of the industry’s materials. Schmidtchen agrees, citing that Kalwall Corporation has landed business recently through its production of a translucent panel with FRP faces. The product helps to transmit diffused natural daylight from outdoors to indoors, a major energy saver.
Tedhams adds that the push toward product transparency extends beyond the building products market. She says Owens Corning has been asked by furniture producers, ceiling tile manufacturers and others to specify material-ingredient details. “In those cases, we have to figure out what percentage of their product is made up of our product, and then determine what we need to disclose.”
Says Schmidtchen: “It boils down to this: There’s a great chance you’re going to bid on a project soon, and someone with influence is going to say, ‘Oh, by the way, you also have to be on board with product transparency.’ The best thing you can do now is educate yourself on the new LEED standard. The worst thing you can do is nothing – to look around and wonder how to respond, and eventually miss an opportunity to win business.”
The U.S. Green Building Council’s website at usgbc.org/v4 is the best place to go to learn about LEED v4. The site includes numerous free webinars about the standard, details about LEED credit submittal requirements, information on services to make LEED certification easier, reference guides with video tutorials and much more.
