I think, perhaps foolishly, that we may have some products that can meet this requirement, but can only move forward if I can answer two key questions:
1. What is the baseline from which the product is optimizing? Is it the industry EPD? or something else unnamed? Conceivably if it's the industry standard EPD, a product specific Type III EPD might be able to show the improvement desired.
2. What does the narrative requirement encompass? Will the EPD itself serve as the narrative? Or do we need to ask the manufacturer for something entirely different that hasn't been published?
Kath Williams
LEED Fellow 2011, PrincipalKath Williams + Associates
140 thumbs up
June 4, 2020 - 3:52 pm
Have you found answers? We're researching and will share!
Nadav Malin
PresidentBuildingGreen, Inc.
LEEDuser Moderator
839 thumbs up
June 4, 2020 - 4:33 pm
Hi Margaret and Kath! Sorry for being so slow here.
Since they failed to specify what the baseline is for these reductions, I just assumed that they meant that baseline to be the same as in v4. Our guidance on that credit says:
I'll try to check on this with USGBC, but I'm pretty confident that's the intent.
Nadav
Margaret Montgomery
PrincipalNBBJ Architects
42 thumbs up
June 4, 2020 - 4:43 pm
Thanks Nadav and Kath, I think you're probably right about the industry average. Unless I hear otherwise, I'm going with that.
Nadav Malin
PresidentBuildingGreen, Inc.
LEEDuser Moderator
839 thumbs up
June 5, 2020 - 1:56 pm
Ok, I heard back from USGBC on this. I should have paid more attention to the 2nd part of your question, Margaret--the narratives are the sticking point.
It turns out that that the baselines for reduction are as I mentioned, but more specific. Comparison to the industry averages counts at 1.5x, comparison to a previous version of the same product counts at 2x.
The sticky part is that these comparisons have to be provided (published) by the manufacturer AND third-party verified. So you can't just do your own comparison to show the reductions. More from USGBC:
I think that makes this option substantially more challenging, but hopefully getting to 10 products should be doable before too long...?
Mikhail Davis
Director of Technical SustainabilityInterface
28 thumbs up
June 11, 2020 - 6:44 pm
Thanks for digging into Option 2 Nadav. My related question on the Action Plans, which i think are going to be the near-term way to get this point, is what qualifies as "critically reviewed." We have the full 200% documentation for our carpet tile, but that doesn't help teams get the point if there are not at least 8 other products or 16 Action Plan products with documentation too. I'm trying to get some other manufacturers to at least do the action plan, but whether or not they have to hire an outside LCA consultant to perform this review is important in terms of cost right now. Has anyone seen a definition of "critically reviewed" for EPD Option 2?
Mikhail Davis
Director of Technical SustainabilityInterface
28 thumbs up
July 20, 2020 - 4:59 pm
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As I said on another thread, USGBC has confirmed that an Action Plan can be considered "Critically Reviewed" if reviewed by an LCA expert (either internally or externally), so this needn't be expensive to get your 1/2 product/50% spend action plan at larger manufacturers who have their own internal LCA team to perform this Review. Sherwin Williams has a good set of Action plans (Joanna Switzer posted these on another question thread)