LEED For Floors - February 2008

By Brian Hamilton

The U.S. Green Building Council is the only non-profit organization in the country that certifies commercial green building projects, and the demand for its seal of approval is growing rapidly. Building owners not only see the monetary value of building green in terms of reduced costs and perceived higher property values, and the health benefits for employees, but the public relations value is sometimes worth the effort by itself. There are other ancillary benefits. For example, planning authorities in San Francisco offer priority permitting for construction projects that are registered with the USGBC’s certification program known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED.

It’s certainly possible to build a green project without jumping over all the LEED hurdles but there’s no other program that carries such a highly visible and accepted seal of approval. Flooring manufacturers’ websites have plenty of information about their products and their green attributes, and various independent websites such as Scientific Certification Systems outline what products meet LEED standards. So it’s not hard to track down green products.

Software is also making inroads in this arena. A company called Greenmind launched EcoScorecard at Greenbuild. It’s a product for manufacturers to use on their websites that allows potential customers to select products by environmental characteristics or environmental rating systems. Its two major flooring clients are Armstrong Commercial Flooring and J&J Commercial.

It’s also understandable how a project owner might want his project to be just a little green because of the additional work involved in the certification process. Brightworks, a Portland, Oregon consulting firm that specializes in LEED projects, says that the greatest challenge of LEED is planning and managing all the additional details. These projects require complete dedication to the goal or it is easy to get derailed.

The LEED program also has its critics. Some environmentalists believe LEED moves too slowly to remain state-of-the-art in green building. Others say USGBC has internal biases against some kinds of products, especially carpet. Still others are concerned that LEED specs could clash with building codes in some areas and create liability issues.

But the trend in commercial construction is to jump on the LEED bandwagon. McGraw Hill Construction predicts that by 2010 as much as 10% of all commercial construction will be green. Nine states have implemented mandatory LEED requirements and more are sure to follow.

As of early January there were 9,516 commercial projects registered in the LEED program and 1,228 had been certified. Membership in the USGBC is also growing quickly. It’s on track to double this year from the 2006 level of 7,200 members. Virtually all of the major flooring manufacturers and associations are members of the organization, which isn’t surprising since the industry has taken a significant leadership role in environmental issues.

Flooring products can only make a minimal contribution toward LEED certification because of the way the projects are scored. Nevertheless, any kind of flooring can fit easily into most LEED projects. And over the course of a large project, all those small differences can add up.

LEED for New Construction and Major Renovations
LEED for New Construction and Major Renovations (LEED-NC) is one of the most popular certification programs. It has several related programs in development, such as LEED for Schools and LEED for Healthcare, but flooring figures into all of them in much the same way. The good news is that all these programs are being consolidated into one set of guidelines later this year. Flooring can also help earn points in LEED for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI), which is for tenant improvement projects.

Projects can receive Platinum, Gold, Silver or Certified levels of certification depending on how many points they accumulate.

In LEED-NC there are seven prerequisite points and 69 elective points. Beyond the basic Certified designation at 26 points (of the 69 elective points) are Silver (33 points), Gold (39 points) and Platinum (52 points) levels. LEED-CI certification levels are based on fewer points, but the way flooring contributes to points is virtually identical. And overall, flooring can have a greater impact in LEED-CI because there are fewer building materials to figure into the calculations.

LEED-NC has five categories for accumulating points and flooring can really only contribute to two of them—Materials and Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality. Together those categories add up to 28 of the 69 elective points, and flooring only figures into a few line items in each category. The other three categories are Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, and Energy and Atmosphere, which have 36 total points. There are also five possible Innovation in Design points, which are essentially extra credit for going well above the standard guidelines in some way.

The LEED point system is organized around environmental goals, not specific products. There’s no such thing as a LEED-certified product. However, in order for any building material, including flooring, to help a project qualify for LEED credits it has to carry a LEED recognized certification from a third-party testing or validation service. But there aren’t many of those.

Scientific Certification Systems is the most notable certification agency and every approved product is in its online database. It has a number of certifications for low emissions and other green factors for all kinds of flooring that are recognized by LEED. They include FloorScore, which measures emissions in resilient flooring, SCS Sustainable Choice for carpet (which is identical to the new carpet standard NSF-140), No Formaldehyde for composite wood, laminate, and other products, and Forest Stewardship Council Chain of Custody, which verifies that wood comes from sustainable, managed forests. The SCS certifications also take into account California environmental standards—such as the South Coast Air Quality Management District Rule 113—which are the toughest in the nation and are often cited in LEED requirements. The International Standards Organization defines recycled content.

Carpet that meets Sustainable Choice (NSF-140) qualifies for an Innovation and Design credit.

Points for Materials
Flooring that has recycled content can help earn credits, but realistically not by itself. Flooring has to be figured in with every other building material. One or two LEED points can be earned based on the recycled content of an entire project, but it has to be a minimum of 10% recycled material overall.

LEED puts a higher value on flooring and other products that contain a lot of post-consumer material, such as Mohawk’s Everstrand carpet that uses recycled plastic water bottles, rather than products that use a lot of post-industrial materials, or stuff that’s left over from the manufacturing of any product.

One point is awarded to a project for having 10% recycled content (based on the value of all materials in the project), not counting mechanical or electrical elements like HVAC systems, as well as elements like elevators. However, it’s not a straightforward formula. That percentage is actually figured using the weight of all the post-consumer recycled content plus half the post-industrial recycled content. The weight of the recycled content, as a percentage of the overall weight, is multiplied by the value of the overall project to get the value, which must be at least 10%. An additional point will be awarded for 20% content, based on the same formula.

Another LEED-NC point can be earned by using a minimum of 10% Regional Materials, which are materials that have been produced within 500 miles of a project. In addition, the raw materials also have to come from within 500 miles. This percentage is based on the overall cost of the project. There’s no intermediate step of figuring out the weight.

Like the credits for recycled materials, this credit encompasses all the materials used in the project and a second point can be earned if 20% comes from within 500 miles.

The use of rapidly renewing products—those harvested in no more than ten year cycles—like bamboo, cork or linoleum can also help earn a point if the project total is 2.5% of the cost.

Finally, a point can be earned if at least half the wood products in a building have certification from the Forest Stewardship Council. FSC certified hardwood and laminate flooring are available on the market. There has also been an ongoing discussion about making other bio-based materials, such as bamboo, eligible to be included for this credit but that has not been implemented.

Points for Indoor Air Quality
According to USGBC, more than 80% of projects in LEED programs are awarded points for indoor air quality. Three sections covering this issue apply to flooring. They address coatings, sealers and adhesives for all kinds of flooring products.< br />
Carpet is the one flooring category that can earn a LEED point all by itself. It simply has to meet the requirements of the Carpet and Rug Institute’s Green Label Plus certification, or carry the SCS Sustainable Choice certification. It doesn’t matter how much carpet is in the project, but it all has to meet the standard.

Other kinds of flooring can help earn a point when installers use adhesives and sealers that carry FloorScore certification. The certification verifies that the level of volatile organic compounds falls into a particular range for each product. All adhesives and sealers used on a project must carry the certification, or none of it counts.

Composite wood products such as laminate and engineered hardwood can help earn a point if they are certified to contain no urea-formaldehyde.

There are other indirect ways that certain kinds of flooring can help with LEED points. For example, access flooring makes it easier to install more efficient heating and cooling systems. Also, concrete or other large-mass floors that can store energy from passive solar systems can contribute.

LEED for Healthcare
LEED for Healthcare, which is still under development, is using the Green Guide for Health Care in determining how to issue points. Although it’s based on LEED-NC, for now it treats some things a little differently. For example, it offers up to five points for “sustainably sourced materials.” This includes products that contain at least 70% salvaged material, 50% rapidly renewing material (double credit if they have an organic certification), 100% FSC wood, or other products that contain recycled content (using the same formula in LEED-NC). Add all those up, and a point is awarded for each 10% of overall cost they represent.

The guidelines strongly suggest using bamboo, wool carpet, linoleum, cork, and straw, wheat or sunflower seed board.

Any products used for this credit must also meet the emissions requirements  in FloorScore, CRI’s Green Label plus, and other standards mentioned earlier.

LEED for Homes
Residential green building is likely to gain traction over the next few years. LEED released its guidelines in January, targeting the top 25% of new homes. However, USGBC is getting some direct competition from the National Association of Home Builders, which is putting its own program in place.

Again, four levels of certification are available and flooring makes its greatest contributions in materials and air quality. However, for this certification, LEED has developed a list of environmentally preferable products. Linoleum, cork, bamboo, FSC-certified wood, sealed concrete and what’s called “recycled-content flooring” all qualify. If they make up 45% of all flooring, the project earns half a point. At 90% the project earns another half point.

Also, a home with 100% hard surface flooring earns a half point for low emissions, and another half point is awarded if the flooring is certified by FloorScore. If all carpet and pad complies with Green Label Plus, the project will earn a half point. Any flooring that meets the 500-mile test mentioned earlier also earns half a point.

Copyright 2008 Floor Focus 

Related Topics:Armstrong Flooring, Carpet and Rug Institute, Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, Lumber Liquidators, Mohawk Industries