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LEED Pilot Credits
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Materials-Related Pilot Credits
Material ingredient optimization

LEED CREDIT

Pilot-Credits MRpc77: Material ingredient optimization 1 point

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Credit language

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© Copyright U.S. Green Building Council, Inc. All rights reserved.

Intent

Credit Moved to Innovation Catalog
This pilot credit was closed to new registrations on 03/15/2017, however, the credit is now available in the innovation catalog on an ongoing basis and may be pursued for an innovation point without prior registration.
To encourage the use of products and materials for which life-cycle information is available and that have environmentally, economically, and socially preferable life-cycle impacts. To reward project teams for selecting products for which the chemical ingredients in the product are inventoried using an accepted methodology and for selecting products verified to minimize the use and generation of harmful substances. To reward raw material manufacturers who produce products verified to have improved life-cycle impacts.

Requirements

Material ingredient optimization
Use products that document their material ingredient optimization using the paths below for at least 25%, by cost, of the total value of permanently installed products in the project.
  • USGBC approved program. Products that comply with building product optimization criteria approved by USGBC.
  • GreenScreen v1.2 Benchmark. Products that have fully inventoried chemical ingredients to 100 ppm that have no Benchmark 1 hazards:
    • If any ingredients are assessed with the GreenScreen List Translator, value these products at 100% of cost.
    • If all ingredients are have undergone a full GreenScreen Assessment, value these products at 150% of cost.
  • Cradle to Cradle v2 Certified. End use products are certified Cradle to Cradle. Products will be valued as follows:
    • Cradle to Cradle Gold: 100% of cost
    • Cradle to Cradle Platinum: 150% of cost
  • Cradle to Cradle v3 Certified. End use products are certified Cradle to Cradle. Products will be valued as follows:
    • Cradle to Cradle Silver: 100% of cost
    • Cradle to Cradle Gold or Platinum: 150% of cost
  • International Alternative Compliance Path – REACH Optimization. End use products and materials that do not contain substances that meet REACH criteria for substances of very high concern. If the product contains no ingredients listed on the REACH Authorization1 or Candidate2 list, value at 100% of cost.
For credit achievement calculation, products sourced (extracted, manufactured, and purchased) within 100 miles (160 km) of the project site are valued at 200% of their base contributing cost. For credit achievement calculation, the base contributing cost of individual products compliant with multiple responsible extraction criteria is not permitted to exceed 100% its total actual cost (before regional multipliers) and double counting of single product components compliant with multiple responsible extraction criteria is not permitted and in no case is a product permitted to contribute more than 200% of its total actual cost.

Structure and enclosure materials may not constitute more than 30% of the value of compliant building products. Projects with significant amounts of structural and enclosure materials may exceed the 30% limit by calculating an alternative structure and enclosure limit (See Calculations under Further Explanation).

General Pilot Documentation Requirements

Register for the pilot credit Credits 1-14 Credits 15-27 Credits 28-42 Credits 43-56 Credits 57-67 Credits 68-82 Credits 83--96
Additional questions
  1. Did your project use the actual or default materials cost to determine the total materials cost?
  2. How did your team determine or estimate the actual materials cost? What method was used?
  3. Where there any challenges in determining the total materials cost? What were they?
  4. If applicable, how would using the actual materials cost verses the default materials cost have effected credit achievement?
See all forum discussions about this credit »

What does it cost?

Cost estimates for this credit

On each BD+C v4 credit, LEEDuser offers the wisdom of a team of architects, engineers, cost estimators, and LEED experts with hundreds of LEED projects between then. They analyzed the sustainable design strategies associated with each LEED credit, but also to assign actual costs to those strategies.

Our tab contains overall cost guidance, notes on what “soft costs” to expect, and a strategy-by-strategy breakdown of what to consider and what it might cost, in percentage premiums, actual costs, or both.

This information is also available in a full PDF download in The Cost of LEED v4 report.

Learn more about The Cost of LEED v4 »

Documentation toolkit

The motherlode of cheat sheets

LEEDuser’s Documentation Toolkit is loaded with calculators to help assess credit compliance, tracking spreadsheets for materials, sample templates to help guide your narratives and LEED Online submissions, and examples of actual submissions from certified LEED projects for you to check your work against. To get your plaque, start with the right toolkit.

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USGBC logo

© Copyright U.S. Green Building Council, Inc. All rights reserved.

Intent

Credit Moved to Innovation Catalog
This pilot credit was closed to new registrations on 03/15/2017, however, the credit is now available in the innovation catalog on an ongoing basis and may be pursued for an innovation point without prior registration.
To encourage the use of products and materials for which life-cycle information is available and that have environmentally, economically, and socially preferable life-cycle impacts. To reward project teams for selecting products for which the chemical ingredients in the product are inventoried using an accepted methodology and for selecting products verified to minimize the use and generation of harmful substances. To reward raw material manufacturers who produce products verified to have improved life-cycle impacts.

Requirements

Material ingredient optimization
Use products that document their material ingredient optimization using the paths below for at least 25%, by cost, of the total value of permanently installed products in the project.
  • USGBC approved program. Products that comply with building product optimization criteria approved by USGBC.
  • GreenScreen v1.2 Benchmark. Products that have fully inventoried chemical ingredients to 100 ppm that have no Benchmark 1 hazards:
    • If any ingredients are assessed with the GreenScreen List Translator, value these products at 100% of cost.
    • If all ingredients are have undergone a full GreenScreen Assessment, value these products at 150% of cost.
  • Cradle to Cradle v2 Certified. End use products are certified Cradle to Cradle. Products will be valued as follows:
    • Cradle to Cradle Gold: 100% of cost
    • Cradle to Cradle Platinum: 150% of cost
  • Cradle to Cradle v3 Certified. End use products are certified Cradle to Cradle. Products will be valued as follows:
    • Cradle to Cradle Silver: 100% of cost
    • Cradle to Cradle Gold or Platinum: 150% of cost
  • International Alternative Compliance Path – REACH Optimization. End use products and materials that do not contain substances that meet REACH criteria for substances of very high concern. If the product contains no ingredients listed on the REACH Authorization1 or Candidate2 list, value at 100% of cost.
For credit achievement calculation, products sourced (extracted, manufactured, and purchased) within 100 miles (160 km) of the project site are valued at 200% of their base contributing cost. For credit achievement calculation, the base contributing cost of individual products compliant with multiple responsible extraction criteria is not permitted to exceed 100% its total actual cost (before regional multipliers) and double counting of single product components compliant with multiple responsible extraction criteria is not permitted and in no case is a product permitted to contribute more than 200% of its total actual cost.

Structure and enclosure materials may not constitute more than 30% of the value of compliant building products. Projects with significant amounts of structural and enclosure materials may exceed the 30% limit by calculating an alternative structure and enclosure limit (See Calculations under Further Explanation).

General Pilot Documentation Requirements

Register for the pilot credit Credits 1-14 Credits 15-27 Credits 28-42 Credits 43-56 Credits 57-67 Credits 68-82 Credits 83--96
Additional questions
  1. Did your project use the actual or default materials cost to determine the total materials cost?
  2. How did your team determine or estimate the actual materials cost? What method was used?
  3. Where there any challenges in determining the total materials cost? What were they?
  4. If applicable, how would using the actual materials cost verses the default materials cost have effected credit achievement?
See all LEEDuser forum discussions about this credit » Subscribe to new discussions about Pilot-Credits MRpc77