LEED Building Waste Management: Green Recycling Strategies for Reducing Carbon Footprint

Post by JR Riddle

Above the last decade, there has been an unprecedented push toward green, sustainable construction. These days, several public and private influences have integrated green methodologies into common development projects, regardless of whether it is driven from neighborhood, state, or federal legislation or from private organizations. The universal objective is that of creating sustainable, lengthy-lasting urban projects that extend and preserve, not overuse, resources. Those who subscribe to the green notion strive to make certain their projects are very effective, constructed of good quality materials, and supply prolonged-term cost financial savings to long term residents, owners, and end-users. This commitment to a sustainable long term assures that projects make lasting contributions to the neighborhoods and communities they are located in.

One of the aforementioned private organizations major the way is USGBC, or the United States Green Developing Council. USGBC designed a program called LEED to set recommendations for sustainable development and construction. LEED stands for Leadership in Power and Environmental Style, and is a rating method for an independent green constructing certification plan which provides voluntary recommendations and third-party verification that a creating or neighborhood was made and constructed utilizing tactics meant to boost performance in environmental and human wellbeing metrics such as: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, supplies choice, and indoor environmental quality. Based on the amount of points a particular project achieves in the LEED rating system, a project can obtain 1 of the following certification levels: Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum. USGBC says that LEED defines “a nationally accepted benchmark for the design and style, construction and operation of substantial-efficiency green buildings” and “provides building owners and operators with the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable effect on their buildings’ functionality.” LEED certified buildings frequently give healthier perform and living environments, which contributes to increased productivity and improved employee health and comfort. The USGBC has compiled a extended list of advantages of implementing a LEED tactic, which ranges from enhancing air and water quality to minimizing solid waste, benefiting owners, occupiers, and society as a whole.

One particular of initial and quite frankly, easiest, strategies that a genuine estate developer will encounter and in turn, attain would be Building Waste Management (this shows up in Credits MRc2.1 and MRc2.2 in the LEED rating program). The intent of this credit is to “divert construction, demolition and land-clearing debris from disposal in landfills and incinerators. Redirect recyclable recovered resources back to the manufacturing approach. Redirect reusable components to appropriate web sites.” If a project is attempting to achieve this credit in their LEED developing certification, the group must “recycle and/or salvage at least 50% of non-hazardous building and demolition debris [or 75% for Credit MRc2.2]. Create and implement a development waste management plan that, at a minimum, identifies the components to be diverted from disposal and regardless of whether the materials will be sorted on-website or co-mingled. Excavated soil and land-clearing debris do not contribute to this credit. Calculations can be accomplished by excess weight or volume, but need to be steady throughout.” A single project that is presently in the process of reaching this credit is the Granada Village Purchasing Center in Los Angeles, CA. Urban One is delivering project management services on behalf of the owner of the property, Regency Centers. The project is a redevelopment of an current purchasing center built back in the early 1960′s. Since the scope of work consists of the replacement of sitework, roofing, storefront, facades, as well as interior improvements of many buildings there is a substantial quantity of demolition that has to take place. This, in turn, presents a excellent opportunity to recycle most of this debris that is being removed. Since the project team is attempting LEED Silver constructing certification, the recycling rates are in line with the thresholds and are truly far exceeding 75%.

Most projects will have some demolition that will be needed prior to commencing building, specifically if it is a redevelopment of an current constructing or if a structure needs to be cleared to permit for new ground-up construction. This creates a excellent opportunity to divert some of the waste being removed from the building or website to be recycled. There will also be some waste generated all through the development approach. This waste need to also be taken into account. The initial step is to determine which supplies present on the project are recyclable. Supplies that recycle properly generally contain concrete, masonry, metal studs, structural steel, aluminum, wood, cardboard, drywall, acoustical tile, plastic, insulation, glass, and carpet, amongst other people.

The subsequent step is for the project group to develop a program, or protocol in the removal and segregation of the material to be diverted. For tracking purposes, most contractors uncover it less complicated to designate a specific location at the website for the segregated or comingled collection of recyclable components. In our experience, unless of course you will be taking your supplies to a recycling plant to sort via comingled materials for you, it is prudent to literally generate separate piles onsite for recyclables and for waste going to the landfill. To avoid any confusion onsite, some Common Contractors even put out recycling containers that are obviously labeled with acceptable (and unacceptable) materials that ought to be positioned in them. We would advocate creating these labels bilingual and post on all sides of the container in addition to posting wayfinding indicators throughout the internet site obviously displaying wherever these containers can be found. The Basic Contractor really should coordinate this program with all of their subcontractors and suppliers to make sure that the suggested dealing with procedures are met and the least quantity of waste is produced. These procedures need to be written into a Development Waste Management Strategy, distributed and reviewed in a pre-task meeting with all involved subs and suppliers. In order to really enforce this plan, it may possibly be beneficial to tell contractors and suppliers that if they do not comply with the strategy, then they will be subject to backcharges and withholding of payment. One particular need to have a watchful eye of crews contaminating debris boxes or dumpsters that have been designated for a single material type.

That leads into the subsequent step of identifying someone to haul the material off of the internet site, as properly as recycling centers that will accept the supplies. Whether or not one particular is attempting LEED developing certification or not, the hauler plays a essential function in the handling and documentation of the quantity of materials becoming diverted toward recycling. When dropping off a truck complete of debris, the hauler wants to obtain receipts from the facilities accepting the materials, which obviously record the quantity, by weight, of every single load. The group also desires to do this for all materials that is not getting recycled as it is dropped off at the regional landfill. It is with the combination of these two kinds of receipts, that the team will be capable to determine the general percentage of building and demolition debris being recycled.

One more selection that was touched on earlier is for the hauler to take the debris to a sorting facility. These facilities do all of the challenging work for you so that you do not need to have to separate all of the material onsite. If taking debris to a sorting facility, all of the debris can be comingled (recyclable and un-recyclable). Distinct sorting facilities supply diverse recycling rates. Cities typically publish lists every single year of all offered sorting/recycling facilities, along with their respective typical recycling rates. The Granada Village Shopping Center Redevelopment that we looked at earlier is currently employing the comingled approach. Considering that the burden of sorting is on the facility, this enables function in the field to progress at a significantly faster rate. There is no require to sort and location each and every sort of material in bins or dumpsters onsite. When choosing a recycling facility for this project, Urban A single and Regency Centers clearly determined to choose a facility that offered a quite high recycling rate. Even so, there was also an additional aspect that had to be deemed – proximity to the website. Possessing a facility that was also far away from the project would have resulted in larger hauling fees and been detrimental to our budget. As any building estimator can inform you, exporting components from the website and hauling/truck charges can get extremely costly. The balance of these two components lead us to pick Community Recycling located in Sun Valley, CA, which delivers us an typical 89.83% recycling rate for comingled development and demolition debris and is only ten.5 miles away from the site.

When attempting to attain this credit in LEED, there are many other methods to comply outside of basically taking the debris to a recycling center. If it fits inside of the scope of perform for building of the project, materials can be salvaged onsite. Another avenue to take would be to donate the materials to a charitable organization, this kind of as Habitat for Humanity. Moreover, instead of taking debris to a facility, why not take it directly to the following source? For illustration, at Granada Village, a substantial amount of broken concrete materials leaving the internet site (around 475 tons to date) is getting sent straight to Brutoco Engineering &amp Development for the Orange Line Extension project just down the street in Chatsworth, CA. 100% of this concrete materials is then crushed, recycled, and reused with the appropriate-of-way for their project. Urban One particular is committed to pursuing projects and true estate investments that encourage pedestrian activities, biking, and use of public transportation, so even acquiring an opportunity to effect another transit project is quite exciting for us.

Regardless of whether a project is attempting LEED developing certification or not, one particular ought to always think about a Construction Waste Management Program and recycle development and demolition waste if the chance presents itself. Redirecting recyclable recovered resources back to the manufacturing procedure and redirecting reusable components to proper internet sites helps lessen the carbon footprint of a project and maximize recycling efforts. Lessen, recycle, and reuse.

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World needs to go Green, than Green needs to go LEED

World needs to go Green, than Green needs to go LEED

In the past decade, the idea of building â??green’ has sprouted globally â?? the so called â??Green revolution’. As years passed by, one could see this revolution gradually turning into one of those temporary trends set up to support marketing of related fields of construction activity. Today, the term â??green’ is certainly abused and misunderstood by most of the engineering empire.

Truthfully, the natural living systems on our planet are the only designs we know of that are triumphant in their sustainability because they relate with the environment in holistic, integrative, and reductive processes. On the contrary, many of the current green building rating systems like LEED are structured to endorse solutions that are in majority additive and encourage consumption over conservation. This is simply because the rating systems are initially conceived to have certain set of sections which cater to sustainability; that are then packed with technologies, systems and products to achieve it. Architects now depend much on these intelligent service systems to make up for their neglect in the basic building design. If buildings are based on a sluggish design process, one would be obviously strained to use the so called â??Green’ or â??intelligent’ engineering methods to supplement it.

It is unfortunate that valuable rating systems such as LEED have converted Architecture into an accounting exercise. This has completely digressed from what could have been a healthy exercise in coming out with truly good architecture. We are missing an opportunity to develop such architecture by allowing these accounting or statistical procedures to dominate our logical thinking and creativity. Targeting maximum LEED points especially in GCC countries require more common sense and deeper understanding of the effect. The potential benefits of solely achieving a certification should not be the motive of the design process.

Advocating bicycle tracks or trying to invest in a rain-water harvesting system in the Middle East are some examples. Inexperienced individuals using LEED do not realize that considering these in GCC countries is a waste of wealth, effort and energy considering the facts that lay before us. Allow me to explain. By trying to harvest the little rain we receive in the Middle East, one does not collect water actually. It turns into a scenario of collecting mud, dirt, contaminated water. This water then requires additional  treatment for reuse -  simply meaning one needs to use adequate chemicals and systems to treat it; one requires to spend money for this treatment system; more water is essential just to backwash the filters;  electricity is required to operate this pumps and trained manpower to maintain the tanks. In short it’s an endless burden. While it may fetch you extra points in the LEED ratings, the whole initiative if analyzed is a wasteful one.

Even implementing large-scale solar driven technologies are of extreme risk due to the amount of atmospheric dust and harsh sunlight – both being predominant factors that reduce solar cell efficiency. Recently, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, in Saudi Arabia was declared to be among the worlds top green buildings. While it is a matter to be appreciated; I hope they have found an energy free-cost free solution to keeping all the solar cells cool and devoid of dust, to run their envisaged roof panels and solar-powered wind turbines for all the years to come. People in the Middle East can only imagine and estimate how much money; water, energy and effort are required to keep all the solar panels and glass clad surfaces of all buildings clean – every year. The statistics are upsetting.

I also wonder why a majority of the LEED credits are weighted equally, when it is plainly clear that some points have more environmental benefits than others. â?? Why would I install efficient HVAC equipment for a few extra points when I could get the same points by adding few bicycle racks in the college campus?’, asked an Architect. Although installing the efficient HVAC system would amount to saving a huge amount of energy and add environmental value on a massive scale, according to LEED rating system – it still equals the idea of having bicycle racks within the educational campus. The solution here is to make a careful study of all the critical credits that add superior environmental value and make them mandatory. Then, the playing of points can be done by professionals within the feeble credits.

It is a fact that the development and construction of Green and Sustainable buildings will initially cost more than a conventional building. This is irrefutable. Practically in addition to this cost, all associated procedures for LEED certification will add up to another 1% – 4%. I do not know why design consultants break their heads making up fake reports and statistics to show clients otherwise. The hidden costs will show up ultimately as the project marches towards completion and will cause clients havoc. Let us be brave enough to acknowledge that they cost more and are definitely worth it.

Somewhere along the line, organizations such as USGBC have realized it could profit of the LEED system. The organization has undoubtedly advertised it globally, when compared to other rating systems like Greenstar (AUST) & BREEAM (U.K). The USGBC charges high fees for commissioning and even for becoming a LEED Accredited Professional. The fees to attempt this test is around US 0. Yes, if one fails another 0 has to be shelled out. In my opinion, if the organization is really concerned about the environment and making buildings globally green, they should make it affordable. Additionally, the LEED AP certification is being converted into an â??elite’ profession â?? gradually threatening the importance of trained professionals in the architectural and engineering arena. I am forced to question the significance of paying for and passing this test as; all LEED APs – go back to referring the LEED handbooks again, while managing or commissioning all aspects of a project. Any professional can handle and refer the handbook as and when required, so why have this costly and superfluous testing system in the first place? Orientation modules and training programmes would more than suffice in this regard.

Instead of converting the commissioning and certification into a technocratic exercise, the procedures should be more involving and also include a subjective approach. Points should be granted for innovative approaches that are not included, coordinated or valued in the LEED handbook. USGBC professionals I suppose, are trained enough to make such judgments and subjective decisions proficiently. The LEED handbook should be treated only as a guide.

Instead of LEED APs judging buildings solely through paper and electronic media submissions â?? regular visits to analyze project sites, inspections of materials and products should also be conducted. Clients and consultants pay a lot of money and spend effort for LEED commissioning purposes and just analyzing a project through mere paperwork submitted through couriers or e-media, does not justify the whole system of USGBC at all. Decisions can be made on project sites through discussions with clients, design consultants and contractors collectively. This is how innovative and fresh LEED can evolve itself to be; rather than just being a mundane system of compiled data on which buildings are rated on.

To conclude, handbooks for rating systems are not to be used as the encyclopedias of Green and sustainable designing. Architects and Engineers must possess ample knowledge on analyzing climatic data and geography, studying human comfort levels, including passive design techniques, careful use of materials/resources and incorporating efficient building services. These basic principles should drive our design process. Determining whether a building is rated green or not is one of the smallest of issues we ultimately face at the end of a project. A rating system such as LEED, BREEAM if required, can serve as a useful check list or a medium to refer alternate solutions to our evolving design concepts.

The world needs green buildings a lot more than green buildings need LEED certification. If certifications such as LEED, BREEAM continue to cost too much money, time and effort â?? we will not stop building green projects; we will just stop certifying them.

Four Ways a Leed Green Home Differs From Regular Construction

The LEED® for Homes program is the premier evaluators of green construction practices nationwide. A LEED certification is an important distinction for a green home to earn, but what are the real differences between a LEED certified green home and a home built with regular construction techniques? Here are the top 4:

1) Over-Kill – LEED is attempting to reduce and eliminate the amount of over-kill in home construction. Over kill is the utilization and installation of over-sized equipment in home construction such as heating and cooling equipment, over-sized lumber for rafters and floor joists. In the past, it was assumed that using bigger heating and cooling units than the minimum standards was a good rule of thumb. Those assumptions have been re-worked in LEED homes to provide the right size equipment for the home.

2) Lower Energy Consumption – LEED homes require far less energy to run and have dramatically lower energy costs. Sometimes getting those savings can present a challenge. State and local code have minimum BTU requirements based on square footage and cubic foot. These minimum requirements have not been updated in a while. There are now new technologies that can heat and cool the same space with less energy consumption. The problem lies in getting the code enforcement to allow the new equipment to be placed into use before the code is updated.

3) Right-Sized Rooms – LEED homes are designed from the start to be less wasteful of building material. However, some things are not so easy to change. An example is the commercial manufacturing of lumber. Lumber is manufactured in standard lengths starting at 8 foot and increasing in 2 foot increments.

But LEED homes can be designed to overcome these limitations and reduce the amount of lumber that is wasted. Therefore, more thought is given to the design of the home. For example, it would be wasteful to design a room with odd dimensions such as 13 foot by 17 foot. It would be better and far less wasteful to make that room 14 foot by 18 foot and use standard lumber lengths.

4) Orientation – In the past very little consideration was given to the placement of the home within the subdivision other than profit. With LEED, other aspects of the home are taken into consideration. Some of these characteristics are:

The direction that the home’s roof and walls face Angle of the roof how many homes per acre (or density) how close the home or subdivision is to public transportation amount of access to parks, industry, shopping, and interstate highways

This makes the design process much more lengthy and intense, while enhancing the outcome. The homes are much more desirable, as a result, while having a positive impact on the environment.

In short, LEED efforts to reduce over-kill, energy consumption, and wasteful practices, while encouraging minimal impact on the environment leads to better quality of living for everyone.

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