My understanding is that LEED has an emphasis on Low Emitting Materials for items inside the weather barrier. However, with the verbiage "Include furniture in the calculations if it is part of the scope of work", it does not specify that we can exclude the exterior pieces.
My ID+C v4 project has a terrace, which as outdoor furniture including planters, benches, stools, etc. When outdoors and prone to weathering, much if not all the outdoor furniture would need some form of weather proofing.
Does this credit require furniture evaluations for furniture outside of the weather proofing barrier?
Randal Carter
Director, Global Product Safety and ComplianceSteelcase Inc.
91 thumbs up
April 18, 2018 - 10:39 am
Good question. I was on the EQ TAG when we created this credit and I do not believe there was any intention to include outdoor furniture at that time. Things may have changed between then and now and others may feel differently so I can't speak for the current thinking at USGBC on this point. Sometimes furniture intended for outdoor use gets used inside the building and in this case I would consider the furniture as subject to this credit (as it is effectively indoor furniture).
However, for furniture that is only used outdoors it does not make sense to me for this credit to apply. The criteria defining low-emitting furniture are based on indoor scenarios with the minimum outdoor air ventilation allowed by law, coupled with very densely occupied spaces with lots of furniture used per square foot of floor space. It is common to express the outdoor air ventilation in terms of "air exchanges per hour" meaning how many times during one hour would the entire mass of air in the space be refreshed with "clean" outdoor air. Often this indoor value is in the neighborhood of 0.5 to 1.5 air changes per hour. Whereas furniture used outdoors is effectively ventilated at something like 10,000 air changes per hour. My point is, off-gassing of VOCs from furniture outdoors where the ventilation is extremely high is a non-issue.