Ebook Archives - Green Badger

October 26, 2022 by

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LEED v4.1 EPD and MIR Option 2 Product Guide – October 2022 Update

There aren’t currently a lot of products that comply with BPDO Option 2 optimization requirements. That's why we'll be releasing quarterly updates to keep your teams in the loop when new products hit the market.

Green Badger does not have any product endorsements or agreements with manufactures to suggest these products. This resource is simply to inform project teams of what is current available on the market to earn you these credits!

Download the Option 2 Guide

February 23, 2022 by

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IEQc4: Indoor Air Quality Assessment

Another throwback LEED credit, simply renamed from Construction IAQ Management, Before Occupancy, to the much more glamorous Indoor Air Quality Assessment. You’ve still got two options: flush out the building with a whole bunch of outside air or hire someone to come and test the air. All in all, pretty straightforward for a LEED credit.

Download the Indoor Air Quality Assessment eBook

Download the eBook to get all the LEED requirements, strategies, and best practices to achieve Indoor Air Quality Assessment.

Requirements for IEQc4: Indoor Air Quality Assessment Credit in LEED v4 and v4.1

Select one of the following two options, to be implemented after construction ends and the building has been completely cleaned.

All interior finishes, such as millwork, doors, paint, carpet, acoustic tiles, and movable furnishings (e.g., workstations, partitions), must be installed, and major VOC punch list items must be finished. The options cannot be combined.

Download the IEQc4 eBook to get Actionable Strategies + Best Practices for Construction Activity Pollution Prevention

Download the Indoor Air Quality Assessment eBook

January 12, 2022 by

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IEQc3: Construction Indoor Air Quality Management Plan

The Construction IAQ Management Plan credit is essentially unchanged from LEED 2009, heck even from LEED 2.2! It took running through burning coals to get here, but alas – take a deep breath of (clean because we’ve had an IAQ management plan) air and exhale because this one is pretty straightforward.

Download the Construction IAQ Management Plan eBook

Download the eBook to get all the LEED requirements, strategies, and best practices to achieve the IEQc3: Construction Indoor Air Quality Management Plan credit.

Requirements for Construction IAQ Management Plan in LEED v4 and v4.1

Develop and implement an indoor air quality (IAQ) management plan for the construction and preoccupancy phases of the building.

The plan must address all of the following:

During construction, meet or exceed all applicable recommended control measures of the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning National Contractors Association (SMACNA) IAQ Guidelines for Occupied Buildings under Construction, 2nd edition, 2007, ANSI/SMACNA 008–2008, Chapter 3.
Protect absorptive materials stored on-site and installed from moisture damage.
Do not operate permanently installed air-handling equipment during construction unless filtration media with a minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV) of 8 are installed at each return air grille and return.
Immediately before occupancy, replace all filtration media with the final design filtration media, installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations.
Prohibit the use of smoking inside the building and within 25 feet (7.5 meters) of the building openings during construction. Smoking includes tobacco smoke, as well as smoke produced from the combustion of cannabis and controlled substances and the emissions produced by electronic smoking devices.
Pretty straightforward stuff (for once). If you’ve been on a LEED project, you’re likely familiar with all of these. The only that has changed from the older versions to v4/4.1 is to prohibit smoking from within 25’ of the building during construction.

Download the LEED IEQc3 eBook to get strategies and best practices for Construction IAQ Management Planning

This credit is pretty straightforward to achieve. You need plenty of time to plan this out as none of really goes into effect until you're vertical. For Interiors projects, you don’t have this luxury. You’ll have to show up on-site with a plan ready to go! Download the ebook for a full list of strategies to earn this credit.

Download the Construction IAQ Management Plan eBook

November 24, 2021 by

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The Essential Guide to Achieving LEED v4 and v4.1 BPDO Credits

Green Badger's Essential Guide to Earning LEED v4/v4.1 BPDO Credits offers a framework of the product categories that we see the broadest number of manufacturers and product lines with EPDs, HPDs, Cradle to Cradle certifications, Declare labels and anything else you need to earn the BPDO credits.

Get our BPDO Credit Guidance

Sourcing of Raw Materials LEED Requirements

Need guidance on LEED BPDO credits?

We’ve created a guide to help teams plan a strategy to earn all of the Building Product Disclosure and Optimization credits for LEED v4.1. It may take some very careful planning, but with the April 2021 updates to the BPDO credits all of the options are now at least potentially earnable which is a huge update over prior iterations. Green Badger will give you strategies for how to earn the following credits:

MRc2 Option 1: Environmental Product Declarations
MRc2 Option 2: Multi-Attribute Optimization
MRc3: Sourcing of Raw Materials
MRc4 Option 1: Material Ingredient Reporting
MRc4 Option 2: Material Ingredient Optimization

Download the BPDO Guide to get Actionable Strategies + Best Practices for all the LEED v4 construction materials credits

With the latest updates, Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) Option 1, Sourcing of Raw Materials, and Material Ingredient Optimization are all very achievable. EPD Optimization (Option 2) and Material Ingredient Optimization (Option 2) now have very achievable requirement thresholds, but especially for the former, there are barely 20 products that exist (as of this writing).

Even with the more straightforward EPD and Ingredient reporting credits, we see too much finger-pointing.

The general contractor gets a generic spec that says "Obtain EPDs where available," but no strategy/guidance of where to look, or a spec that calls for a product with an HPD but it costs 20% more. That’s where this guide comes in. It’s a starting point for where to most easily and readily find products that meet the requirements for all the BPDO. This is NOT a comprehensive list of every single product that has LEED compliant documentation. Go spend a few hundred hours going product by product through all the various databases out there if you want that.

Get our BPDO Credit Guidance

October 25, 2021 by

IEQc2-Low-Emitting-Materials-ebook-cover

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IEQc2: Low Emitting Materials

Ah, remember the good old days? You take an MSDS sheet, find a VOC content, make sure its under the limit, and you call it a day. That was so 2012 of us! Low-Emitting Materials now covers almost everything inside your building - from the typical paints and adhesives to the door frames, drywall and anything else you can poke with a finger.

Download the IEQc2 Ebook

Download the eBook to get all the LEED requirements, strategies, and best practices to achieve the IEQc2 Low Emitting Materials credit.

LEED IEQc2 Low Emitting Materials requirements

Requirements for the IEQc2 Low Emitting Materials credit in LEED v4.1

LEED v4.1 made earning more than point for this credit much more achievable, and you’ve got a pretty good fighting chance to earn multiple points these days - but it is definitely a case of less is more.

There is now a whole new range of product categories that get tracked for compliance, but some of them are now much more trouble than they are worth. Don’t worry, we’ll tell you which you should focus on, and which you forget.

There are 8 total product categories, and you can pick and choose which ones to pursue (HINT! Don’t waste your time chasing all of them). Each category has a different requirement that must be met because of course why would it be standardized?

Download the IEQc2 eBook to get Actionable Strategies + Best Practices for Low Emitting Materials

Download the IEQc2 Ebook

September 2, 2021 by

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MRc4 Option 2: Material Ingredient Optimization

What is it about Option 2’s that USGBC hates? If they make an Option 2 available, it is always the most complicated, cumbersome, and labor intensive point available. In fact, if you want a good cheat-sheet, if there’s an Option 2 available just run the other way. Option 2 of this credit in LEED v4 wasn’t achievable, so they added an Option 3! Thankfully, all of that is DOA for v4.1. Option 2 remains the same structurally, but the compliance thresholds have dropped significantly, and it puts this credit in the realm of possibly achievable.

Download the MRc4 Option 2 Material Ingredient Optimization Ebook

Download the MRc4 Option 2 Ebook to get all the LEED requirements, strategies, and best practices to achieve Material Ingredient Optimization.

LEED Material Ingredient Optimization requirements

Requirements for MRc4 Option 2 Material Ingredient Optimization in LEED v4 and v4.1

This credit has 1 Point achievable. To earn it, you need to use products that comply with one of the criteria I’ll discuss for at least 5 permanently installed products sourced from at least three different manufacturers.

Material Ingredient Screening and Optimization Action Plan (value at 50% by cost or ½ product)
Advanced Inventory & Assessment (value at 100% by cost or 1 product)
Material Ingredient Optimization (value at 150% by cost or 1.5 products)

Similar to EPD Option 2, this is the cliff-notes version so buckle up, pour a stiff one, and get ready for your crash course into green chemistry. Alright, You need 5 products from 3 different manufacturers. These products need to either have a plan in place to reduce ingredient impacts OR show some actual reductions.

Download the MRc4 Option 2 eBook to get Strategies + Best Practices for Material Ingredient Optimization

What qualifies as a Material Ingredient Screening and Optimization Action Plan?

The manufacturer has screened the product to at least 1,000 ppm and has provided a publicly available inventory meeting the requirements of Option 1 - that’s the easy part. If you have an HPD already, the first step in the right direction! Next, the manufacturer must create a detailed action plan to mitigate or reduce known hazards using the principles of green chemistry.

This action plan needs to describe the screening platform and then identify the specific green chemistry principles targeted for implementation, specific steps anticipated for implementation, proposed changes in formulation or manufacturing processes that are planned and specific dates and a full timeline for completion of all the steps described in the action plan. If they do all that, their product counts as a whopping 0.5 contribution to earning this point.

Download the MRc4 Option 2 Material Ingredient Optimization Ebook

August 8, 2021 by

MRc4 Option 1 Material Ingredient Reporting LEED ebook by Green Badger

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MRc4 Option 1: Material Ingredient Reporting

Have you ever wondered what’s really inside some of those products you are using inside of your building? No? Me neither! But hey, someone smarter than me decided that you should be informed of what exactly is hanging on your walls or under your feet, and that is what this credit is all about. This credit is going to sound a lot like Green Badger’s guidance on EPDs.

Most products still don't have documentation to comply with this credit. In fact, prescreened/verified for LEED products total less than 3,000. These are predominantly Health Product Declarations, but both Cradle to Cradle and Declare Labels are growing in popularity as well.

Download the MRc4 Option 1: Material Ingredient Reporting eBook

Access the LEED MRc4 Option 1 Ebook to get Actionable Strategies and Best Practices for Material Ingredient Reporting.

MRc4-Option-1-Material-Ingredient-Reporting requirements LEED green badger

Requirements for MRc4 Option 1: Material Ingredient Reporting in LEED v4 and v4.1

1 Point: For most LEED BD+C Projects: 20 products with qualifying material ingredient reports that demonstrate the chemical inventory of the product to at least 0.1% (1000 ppm).

1 Point: For Commercial Interiors, Core and Shell, and Warehouse projects, 10 products with qualifying environmental product declarations.

Exemplary Performance Point: 40 products (20 for CI, C&S, Warehouse)

There are nine compliance options that USGBC lists (for the entire list, click here), but since we’re pretty pragmatic Badger’s, we’ll only focus on the options that you’ll actually see in the marketplace. They were alluded to earlier, but they are:

Health Product Declaration: The end-use product has a published and complete Health Product Declaration with full disclosure of known hazards in compliance with the Health Product Declaration open Standard.
Cradle to Cradle: The product has Material Health Certificate or is Cradle to Cradle Certified™ under standard version 3 or later with a Material Health achievement level at the Bronze level or higher.
Declare Label: The Declare product label must meet the following requirements:
- Declare labels designated as Red List Free or Declared.
- Declare labels designated as LBC Compliant that demonstrate content inventory to 0.1% (1000 ppm).

These documents show you what’s in a product - but is anyone actually reviewing chemical components and making product selections based on them? No one we know. Just having an HPD does not mean a product is any healthier than another - it is simply a detailed list of what is inside something. You can use that chemistry degree you keep in your back pocket to make those decisions.

Download the LEED MRc4 Option 1 eBook to get Actionable Strategies + Best Practices for Material Ingredient Reporting

If you're looking for credit guidance for all the LEED construction credits you'll be tasked with, check out our Ultimate Guide to LEED Construction. It's filled with advice and resources to help your team succeed at LEED.

Download the MRc4 Option 1: Material Ingredient Reporting eBook

July 9, 2021 by

MRc3 Sourcing Raw Materials Green Badger LEED Credit Guidance feature

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MRc3: Sourcing of Raw Materials

Sourcing of Raw Materials is a streamlined, more achievable version of the LEED v4 credit. The v4 credit had an unachievable Option 1 (for corporate sustainability reporting), and a 2nd option that required 25% of products by cost to meet a variety of environmental metrics. However, it limited the ability of structural and envelope products to comply. The good news? The Sourcing of Raw Materials credit is now pretty achievable. It tends to be easier on new construction projects, but plenty of interiors projects are navigating this as well.

Download the MRc3 eBook

Download the MRc3 eBook to get all the LEED requirements, strategies, and best practices to achieve the LEED Sourcing of Raw Materials credit.

Requirements for Sourcing of Raw Materials in LEED v4 and v4.1

There are 2 points available under sourcing of raw materials under v4.1.

For 1 point, you need to use products sourced from at least three different manufacturers that meet at least one of the responsible sourcing and extraction criteria we’ll talk about for at least 15%, by cost, of the total value of permanently installed building products in the project (1 point).

To earn the 2nd point, you need to use products sourced from at least five different manufacturers that meet at least one of the responsible sourcing and extraction criteria below for at least 30%, by cost of the total value of permanently installed building products in the project (2 points).

Extended Producer Responsibility (valued at 50% by cost)
Biobased Products
Wood Products
Material Reuse
(valued at 200% by cost)
Recycled Content

There you go - a menu of options that all wrap up in aggregate the need to be at least 15% of total material cost Divisions 3-10 for one point, or 30% for two points.

So how do you earn points for Sourcing of Raw Materials? Download the ebook for Green Badger's tips, tricks, and strategies.

Download the MRc3 eBook to get Actionable Strategies + Best Practices for Sourcing of Raw Materials

Download the MRc3 eBook

June 4, 2021 by

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MRc2 Option 2: Multi-Attribute Optimization

A credit that was dead on arrival in LEED v4, Multi-Attribute Optimization, now has a very slight pulse in LEED v4.1. The credit thresholds have been re-written so that only 5 products are needed, and there’s actually a confirmed standard to demonstrate compliance. The challenge that remains? There are still only a handful of these products, so you better plan on using all of them and have them identified from spec to installation. There’s literally no room for error!

Download the MRc2 Option 2 eBook

Download the MRc2 Option 2 eBook to get all the LEED requirements, strategies, and best practices to achieve Multi-Attribute Optimization.

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Requirements for MRc2 Option 2 in LEED v4 and v4.1

To earn one point for Multi-Attribute Optimization, you need to use at least 5 permanently installed products that comply with one of the criteria we’ll discuss shortly from 3 different manufacturers.

Life Cycle Impact Reduction Action Plan (value at 50% by cost or ½ product)
Life Cycle Impact Reductions in Embodied Carbon (value at 100% by cost or 1 product)
Life Cycle Impact Reductions in Embodied Carbon - 10% reduction global warming potential (value at 150% by cost or 1.5 products)
Life Cycle Impact Reductions in Embodied Carbon - 20% reduction in global warming potential and 5% reduction 2 other impact categories (value at 200% by cost or 2 products)

And that’s the cliff notes version. The full language will have you mispronouncing eutrophication, learning about tropospheric ozone, and pounding bourbon like you’re Al Swearengen.

So what does any of that mean? Let’s try and break this down in plain English. You need 5 permanently installed products from 3 different manufacturers. These products need to either have a plan in place to reduce lifecycle impacts OR show some actual reductions. Download the ebook to see what this entails.

Download the MRc2 Option 2 eBook to get Actionable Strategies + Best Practices for Multi-Attribute Optimization

Download the MRc2 Option 2 eBook

May 6, 2021 by

Earning MRc2 Option 1 Environmental Product Declarations in LEED v4.1

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MRc2 Option 1: Environmental Product Declarations

Environmental product declarations used to be rare as an albino jackalope, but these days there are a lot of options across the spectrum. That’s not to say you’ll be walking the job site and trip over a pile of environmental product declarations (EPDs). In fact, most products still don’t have them, but if you know where to look it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Where do I look, you may ask? Well, that’s what we're going to tell you in this ebook!

Download the MRc2 Option 1 eBook

Download the MRc2 Option 1 eBook to get all the LEED requirements, strategies, and best practices to achieve MRc2 Option 1 Environmental Product Declarations.

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Requirements for MRc2 Option 1 Environemtnal Product Declarations in LEED v4 and v4.1

1 Point: For most LEED BD+C Projects: 20 products with qualifying environmental product declarations.

1 Point: For Commercial Interiors, Core and Shell, and Warehouse projects, 10 products with qualifying environmental product declarations.

Exemplary Performance Point: 40 products (20 for CI, C&S, Warehouse)

You may be asking, why is the word qualifying in italics? What’s the hidden meaning behind that? Unsurprisingly, not all EPDs are created the same, and LEED has a number of different requirements and standards that an EPD must have incorporated, or you’re SOL. Download the eBook to get Green badger's advice on actionable strategies and best practices for finding Environmental Product Declarations.

Download the MRc2 Option 1 eBook to get Actionable Strategies + Best Practices for finding Environmental Product Declarations

What is an Environmental Product Declaration?

Here are the basics. Environmental product declarations are independently verified reports based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies. The LCA studies must have been conducted according to a set of common rules (“product category rules,” or PCRs) for each product category and then peer-reviewed. EPDs are managed and created by “program operators” — organizations that ensure that the EPDs meet the various requirements. In the U.S. you’ll see those from UL, SCS, ASTM or NSF, though there are a few others that are coming around.

Download the MRc2 Option 1 eBook

April 15, 2021 by

mrc5 ebook construction waste management leed v4 greenbadger

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LEED MRc5: Construction Waste Management

Construction waste management is pursued on nearly every LEED project, and for good reason. With proper planning, two points are achievable. But can project teams really hit the waste reduction goals? If your project has a ton of demolition it will make earning more than 1 point for the LEED MRc5 credit may be a challenge. For this reason, we’re providing you guidance for both LEED v4 and v4.1 because if your project hasn’t registered specifically under v4.1 then you have the option to choose.

Download the LEED MRc5 eBook

Download the LEED MRc5 eBook to get all the requirements, strategies, and best practices to achieve Construction Waste Management for LEED v4 and v4.1

Requirements for LEED MRc5 in v4 and v4.1

Develop and implement a construction and demolition waste management plan and achieve points through waste prevention and/or diversion.

Waste Management Plan and Report: All projects must develop and implement a construction and demolition waste management plan:

Identify strategies to reduce the generation of waste during project design and construction.
Establish waste diversion goals for the project by identifying the materials (both structural and nonstructural) targeted for diversion.
Describe the diversion strategies planned for the project. Describe where materials will be taken including expected diversion rates for each material.

Having a good construction waste management plan is the first step towards earning LEED MRc5 Construction Waste Management in LEED v4.1. First of all, it is required for the pre-requisite under MRp2 to have a construction waste management plan. If you need a construction waste management plan template, you can download our template here. You have to have a plan that identifies what waste is going to be generated for the project, and what means will be implemented to divert from landfills. You need to identify at least 5 different materials in your plan, even if you only need 3 in implementation to earn the points.

Looking for more strategies for earning LEED construction waste management credits? Read more LEED MRc5 credit guidance here.

Download the LEED MRc5 eBook to get Actionable Strategies + Best Practices for Construction Waste Management

Download the LEED MRc5 eBook

March 23, 2021 by

SSp1 LEED v4 credit guidance for construction activity pollution prevention ebook download

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SSp1: Construction Activity Pollution Prevention

Construction Activity Pollution Prevention is known by many names (construction activity pollution prevention being the least common). SSp1, Erosion control, SWPPP - they all amount to the same thing. Erosion control measures are pretty much required on most projects anyway, so just make sure you have your silt fence up, keep it functioning, and you’ll be in good shape!

Download the SSp1 eBook

Download the SSp1 eBook to get all the LEED requirements, strategies, and best practices to achieve SSp1 Construction Activity Pollution Prevention.

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Requirements for SSp1 in LEED v4 and v4.1

Project teams are required to create and implement an erosion and sedimentation control plan for all construction activities associated with the project.

The plan must conform to the erosion and sedimentation requirements of the 2017 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Construction General Permit (CGP) or local equivalent, whichever is more stringent.
Projects must apply the CGP regardless of size.
The plan must describe the measures implemented.

These are the same requirements for pretty much any version of LEED, but note that using v4.1 requires compliance with the 2017 version of the EPA CGP - if your state hasn’t updated to that version, you’ll be better off sticking to LEED v4 which relies on the 2012 standard - if that’s an option for your project.

Download the SSp1 eBook to get Actionable Strategies + Best Practices for Construction Activity Pollution Prevention

First and foremost, don’t forget that this is the only construction-related prerequisite, meaning you have to achieve this or the project cannot earn certification, regardless of how many points get tallied. So don’t mess this one up!

Another important note: This is required regardless of the size of your project. Under an acre? Still need it. Zero lot line? Same. Project teams have a choice: to use the EPA CGP or local standard. Now, I’m not a state by state erosion control expert, so you’ll have to defer to your civil engineer or other team member to determine which standard is more stringent, and then make sure to use that version.

The whole intent of this prerequisite is to reduce pollution from construction activities by controlling soil erosion, waterway sedimentation, and airborne dust. That means keep the dirt from your site on site, don’t let stuff trickle into waterways or sewers, and keep dust from flying off site in the breeze.