Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design version 4 (LEED v4) is the latest incarnation of the revolutionary green building rating system.
According to Mark Thimons, vice-president, sustainability at the U.S.-based Steel Market Development Institute, it’s also providing more opportunities for builders to earn points by choosing steel.
“LEED has always rewarded recycled content,” says Thimons. “In this version of LEED, we’re seeing opportunities for steel in a revamped materials section including credits for life cycle assessment, environmental product declarations (EPDs) and transparency.”
“Both the U.S. and Canadian versions of LEED v4 are identical regarding materials and resources (MR) credits for LEED-certified projects,” says Mark Hutchinson, vice-president, green building programs, with the Canada Green Building Council . MR credits focus on “minimizing the embodied energy and other impacts associated with the extraction, processing, transport, maintenance and disposal of building materials.”