Innovation in Design Credit for Using Certified Climate Neutral Products Intent To eliminate the life cycle global warming impact of major building materials, such as carpet, through third party certified climate neutral programs. Environmental Benefit Many building products are petroleum-based and/or are manufactured with energy-intensive processes resulting in a significant impact on Global Climate Change. Climate Change leads many assessments as our most pressing global environmental challenge. Certified climate neutral products such as those designated Climate Cool" by the Climate Neutral Network eliminate the net climate impact by eliminating concerns for additionality and by retiring certified offsets in perpetuity. We feel this program warrants acceptance as a LEED Innovation Credit because the program
The Climate Neutral Network\'s standard provides an appropriate benchmark for the measurement of the climate impact and mitigation of materials and processes. Your proposed requirement of one "major" climate neutral building product, however, is arbitrary and therefore not acceptable. In order to achieve an innovation credit, the project must adopt a comprehensive approach to Green House Gas reduction. Additionally, an appropriate performance threshold should be proposed to measure the success of the credit. A possible approach would be to: 1) determine the Green House Gas (GHG) impact of the building or firm, AND 2) use Climate Neutral products for a minimum of 1% of the total building materials based on cost. Applicable internationally.