Page 373 - The Engineering Guide to LEED-New Construction Sustainable Construction for Engineers

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Summary of the Credits
Sustainable construction is composed of many diverse objectives, criteria, impacts, and design
features. It is a systematic way to build that includes multiple disciplines and various
requirements that sometimes have possibly conflicting outcomes. Due to the complexity of
sustainability, it is difficult to keep track of all the objectives. The USGBC LEED rating system
and other sustainability guides do an excellent job of organizing and ranking many of these
complex system objectives. However, it is still difficult to remember all the various parts,
particularly since most people cannot be experts in everything. To help overcome the enormity
of it all, it is recommended to have as many project participants as possible familiar with the
prerequisites and credits. One way to accomplish this is to have many project decision makers
accredited in LEED or by other environmental certifications. To facilitate both studying for the
LEED accreditation and using it as a tool for any interested party to become familiar with
the prerequisites and credits, the author has developed a study table. Two examples of the
template for study tables are presented in Tables 8.2.2 and 8.2.3 for Sustainable Sites and Water
Efficiency, respectively.
The first thing one might notice is that most of the cells in Tables 8.2.2 and 8.2.3 are
empty. This is so that individuals can complete the table by reviewing the Reference
Guide or the chapters in this text and complete them in the manner most useful for that
individual. A civil engineer will need different information in various cells to understand
the items than a person trained in architecture or planning or mechanical engineering.
Thus, these tables can be used both for reviewing the prerequisites and credits and for
customizing the information to each individual. One of the most import columns to
complete is the variable/concepts column. What fits here will vary tremendously from
credit to credit, especially since many credit criteria are based on quantitative variables
and other criteria on qualitative concepts. For instance, for SSc2, there are specific quantitative
variables such as density radius and development density that are used, whereas for
EQc3.1 the concepts include the five principles of SMACNA.
It is intended that the individual make similar tables for the other LEED-NC
categories and complete them for a comprehensive review of the rating system and as
a tool for future reference.

8.3 Additional Tools and Education

Energy Star, BEES, and More
Two national rating tools have been developed in recent years that can aid in many of the
sustainable design decisions. One has been developed by the EPA and rates individual
building products based on energy consumption. It is the Energy Star program. The Energy
Star label is a common feature on many consumer products also. The second tool has been
developed by the National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST). It is called Building
for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) and can be used to aid in choosing
building materials based on both environmental and economic considerations. The current
version in 2007 was BEES 4.0. It can be downloaded for free from the NIST website.
The BEES model usually assesses products based on a 50-year model, and it looks
into various stages of the product life. The main stages are
• Raw materials acquisition
• Product manufacture