Rapidly Renewable Materials (LEED MR Credit 6): What are they?

As a Flooring Contractor we only deal with a few credits in the LEED rating systyem, in the next few weeks I will be focusing on each one . The first one we are going to look at is.........

Rapidly renewable materials are natural, non-petroleum-based building materials (petroleum based materials are non-renewable) that have harvest cycles under 10 years. Such materials include bamboo, straw, cork, natural linoleum products (such as Marmoleum), wool, wheatboard, strawboard, etc. In the LEED green building rating system, LEED MR Credit 6.0 states that rapidly renewable materials must be equal to no less than 2.5% of the cost of a building project in terms of value. Additional LEED MR Credits may be earned for using specific percentages of recycled content, regional materials or a combination.

Some green building materials products are comprised of a composite of rapidly renewable materials and recycled content such as newsprint, cotton, soy-based materials, seed husks, etc. Environ Biocomposites creates a line of rapidly renewable composite materials for various LEED Materials and Resources credits including: LEED MR Credit 4.1, LEED MR Credit 4.2, LEED MR Credit 5.1, LEED MR Credit 5.2 and LEED MR Credit 6.0.

Getting Familiar with Cradle to Cradle design in the flooring world

The Cradle to Cradle Certification evaluates and improves products by thoroughly assessing and optimizing materials and production processes. Certification means a healthy, safe, effective and quality product that is recyclable again and again.
As a non-consensus standard, Cradle to Cradle was not created by the carpet industry or any other specialty group. Founded and administrated by MBDC, Cradle to Cradle is an independent, multi-attribute product certification based on the Cradle to Cradle design protocol, a scientifically based, peer-reviewed process used to assess and optimize products and processes to maximize health, safety, effectiveness, and high quality reutilization over many product life cycles.
Cradle to Cradle is open to a wide variety of products – not just carpet – which allows for stringent criteria during the evaluation process that does not focus on one industry in particular.
The categories used to evaluate products include:

• Environmentally Safe and Healthy Materials
• Efficient Use of Water and Maximum Water Quality
• Use of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
• Instituting Strategies for Social Responsibilities

McDonough + Partners: Cradle to Cradle

What is LEED anyway????

Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies intended to improve performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO₂ emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

LEED has evolved since its original inception in 1998 to more accurately represent and incorporate emerging green building technologies. LEED NCv1.0 was a pilot version. These projects helped inform the USGBC of the requirements for such a rating system, and this knowledge was incorporated into LEED NCv2.0. LEED NCv2.2 was released in 2005, and v3 in 2009. Today, LEED consists of a suite of nine rating systems for the design, construction and operation of buildings, homes and neighborhoods. Five overarching categories correspond to the specialties available under the LEED Accredited Professional program. That suite currently consists of:
Green Building Design & Construction

• LEED for New Construction
• LEED for Core & Shell
• LEED for Schools
• LEED for Retail: New Construction and Major Renovations
• LEED for Healthcare

Green Interior Design & Construction

• LEED for Commercial Interiors
• LEED for Retail: Commercial Interiors

Green Building Operations & Maintenance

• LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance

Green Neighborhood Development

• LEED for Neighborhood Development

Green Home Design and Construction

• LEED for Homes

LEED also forms the basis for other sustainability rating systems such as the Environmental Protection Agency's Labs21.
After four years of development, aligning credits across all LEED rating systems and weighting credits based on environmental priority, USGBC launched LEED v3,^[5] which consists of a new continuous development process, a new version of LEED Online, a revised third-party certification program and a new suite of rating systems known as LEED 2009. In response to concerns that LEED's requirements are cumbersome and difficult to learn, in 2009 USGBC supported the development by BuildingGreen, LLC of LEEDuser, a third-party resource that contains tips and guidance, written by professionals in the field, on applying LEED credits and the LEED certification process.

Remember Guys and Girls we are recycling single stream now ( bottles, cans, paper) in recycling containers so please get in the habbit!

Green Fact #1:
If the entire population of the United States washed their clothes exclusively with cold water (instead of hot), we would save $3 billion in energy costs annually and cut national CO2 emissions by over a full percent!