Simplify LEED Certification
Top 10 Questions for LEED Construction
At Green Badger, we’ve had the opportunity to help thousands of design and construction teams navigate LEED certification. Since we often encounter the same LEED questions, we've compiled a list of the top 10 most frequently asked questions along with their answers.
Construction is a complicated endeavor in and of itself, and throwing sustainability requirements on top is just one more challenge project teams endure (and overcome!). At Green Badger, we’ve had the opportunity to help thousands of design and construction teams navigate LEED certification - with projects ranging from a 1400 sf Starbucks to 2,000,000+ sf airport terminals at JFK, BNA and plenty of others around the country.
Regardless of project size and type, we’ve seen some of the same questions pop up time and time again, so we said, hey, why not write them down so people can easily find them? So we did! For your reading please, without further ado, the top 10 most common LEED questions fielded by the Green Badger team.
Question 1
What is needed to show compliance with the Construction Activity Pollution Prevention (CAPP) prerequisite, and what do I need for documentation?
Construction Activity Pollution Prevention is a fancy way for saying Erosion and Sedimentation Control (ESC) or Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans (SWPPP) which are requirements any project over 1 acre are required to implement anyway. The only difference is LEED requires it on every project, including those under an acre and zero lot line projects, but its really nothing different than a project team would be doing for a normal construction project.
For LEED, there’s really two requirements. First, create an ESC plan to limit the impact of water and dust leaving the project site. This is typically done by the project’s civil engineer and is part of the overall civil set, and will show where silt fence and inlet protection needs to be installed, construction entrances, temporary water and seeding, and the like. For the construction team, it comes down to implementing the measures on the plan and maintaining them. Install everything per design, and then inspect at least monthly (if not weekly) to verify that the measures are still in place and functioning as they should.
Inspection reports tend to be required on most projects (LEED or not LEED), so whatever is being submitted to the local jurisdiction or state is perfectly acceptable for LEED documentation. While you can walk the jobsite with a clipboard and paper template hand writing notes, there are some more efficient ways. Here are some tips and best practices:
- Make sure your reports are being done at least monthly! Weekly or bi-weekly is more common, but a minimum of once per month.
- Photos are not required, but always helpful - especially with Green Badger app, which is included with your project license. Use photos to show that measures are correctly installed and functioning, and including captions on site location are always helpful.
- Its ok if something is found to be damaged, ineffective, or not functioning as designed. Just make sure to A) fix the issue, and then B) create a corrective action report to document that the fix has been put in place. That said - don’t submit reports showing a need for corrective action as part of your LEED submission!
- The Green Badger mobile app is a great way to create both inspection and corrective actions reports and provide date/time stamped photos, captions, notes and everything else you’d need to perform an inspection.
Question 2
I used a paint that wasn’t compliant - did I just lose my low-emitting points?
Answer! The good news is NO! To start, you can earn up to 3 points for low-emitting products and it covers 8 different categories of products. You can pick and choose which categories you’re using to earn the points - if some products are non-compliant in one category, you can just ignore it and focus on another category ( Points requirements - 1 point/2 categories, 2 points/3 categories, 3 points/4 categories)
Additionally, you don’t have to be 100% compliant in a category to earn it. You can be as low as 75% compliant (by cost or quantity) for most categories, and 90% for a few others. So you can use small amounts of any number of products, as long as your tracking all product use for that particular category.
For example, if you’ve used 100 gallons of compliant wall paint and primer, but use 1 gallon of non-compliant paint for a specialty application (like say elevator doors), you’re still 99% compliant and that category would still help your earn points.
Wet-applied sealants & adhesives and paints & coatings need to meet the corresponding VOC requirement for the product type AND the general emissions evaluation. All other products (for the most part) need to mee the general emissions evaluation. Need a refresher on what certifications comply with the general emissions evaluation? Check out the USGBC Guide here.
Just note, if you’re not completely compliant for a product category, you will need to track by cost or surface area for all categories except wet applied product categories, which can be tracked by volume or surface area to calculate the budget. Subs must provide quantities at the time they deliver the submittal or you are running blind on how you're doing on your categories.
While there are 8 total product categories available, some are easier to earn than others. From Green Badger’s experience, the most easily earned categories include flooring, ceilings, insulation, and paints & coatings. Download our cheat sheet to learn more!
There’s also a handful of products that look like they may need to be tracked in low-emitting but actually do not. These include all MEP insulation (duct insulation and liner, pipe insulation, etc), non-wet applied sealants (fire plugs, backer rod).
Question 3
What questions should I ask my waste hauler to maximize points?
Construction waste has come under fire from USGBC reviewers and they are asking teams to provide more and more information - especially where commingled recycling is being used by the hauler.
A few key questions to ask when your signing your contract with a waste hauler include:
- Are they providing site separate dumpsters or commingled (site separated makes life a lot easier in LEED!)
- If commingled, what facility are they taking it to? Can that facility provide a project specific diversion rate or an annual facility recycling rate?
- Do they have any third party verification - state inspection, RCI certification, etc
- Are they weighing each load or just visually inspecting it (LEED does not accept visual inspection)
- What material streams can they take? I.e. metals, drywall, wood - what can they accept and what ends up in the landfill
- What happens to the material after it leaves your site?
- How are materials sorted, tracked, and reported?
- Will they provide you with an excel spreadsheet each month and rolling summary or just individual waste tickets?
- Use Green Badger’s free Construction Waste Management Plan to outline your expected material streams, how they will be disposed of at the jobsite, and what facility will take them.
Question 4
What needs to be included in my indoor air quality inspections and when/how often do I need to do them?
Indoor air quality inspections during construction is pretty straight forward - The project is required to have an IAQ Plan which highlights which SMACNA measures will be utilized and that smoking is prohibited within 25’ of the building - the reports just need to capture photos of those measures and you’re set!
Followup question - what are the SMACNA measures again? Broadly speaking the SMACNA measures are HVAC protection, Source Control, Housekeeping, Pathway Interruption, Scheduling and Absorptive Material Protection. Need some examples of what that actually entails? Good news - here’s a cheat sheet that shows all the sample measures for all the SMACNA requirements - pick and choose what’s relevant for your project.
Best practices for managing the Construction IAQ credit include:
- Capture photos of the SMACNA measurements using the Green Badger mobile app, which is included with your project license. Monthly inspections are fine.
- Inspections should start once ductwork has arrived or as the building is approaching dried-in.
- Monthly inspections are perfectly fine - you don’t have to be doing this every day.
- LEED reviewers are looking for a diversity of photos, a diversity of areas of the building, and a diversity of measures to feel confident the measures have been applied to the entire building throughout the project. Its helpful to annotate photos to describe location, etc.
- Reviewers also like to see a photo of no smoking signage.
- Refer to our LEED Indoor Air Quality Inspection Checklist
- Use Green Badger’s IAQ Management Template (required for LEED)
Question 5
How do I earn the Option 2 credits?
- Reference our ebook EPD and MIR Option 2 Product Guide
- Work with the design team as early as possible to compare products in Green Badger's database with products in your finish schedule. You only need 5 products with a minimum of 3 manufacturers for each optimization credit, but unless the team is very prescriptive, it’s unlikely you will accidentally earn the credits.
- Invite the architect into your project or onto a zoom/team’s call to “shop” for optimized products very early on in the project.
Give all your architects and designer friends our Ebook LEED Product Guide - Options 1 & 2 Products Only (getgreenbadger.com)
Question 6
I’ve got 1,000 line items in my submittal log - where should I start to earn the Environmental Product Declarations and Material Ingredient Reporting credits?
There are hundreds if not thousands of products that going into a construction project, and shocker, most don’t help or hurt you from a LEED perspective. EPDs and transparency documents have only become widely available in the past decade and don’t exist for a lot of product categories (yet). The good news is there are an ample number of products to help you earn points in LEED and you can do so in a targeted and focused manner.
Based on Green Badger’s (pretty extensvie) experience, we’ve identified the following product categories as being chock-full of products with EPDs and transparency documentation;
- Paints
- Drywall
- Ceiling tiles and grid
- Flooring (carpet, resilient, tile, etc)
- Insulation
- Doors & Hardware
- Interior metal studs
Why these categories? Because there are a lot of product options and multiitple manufacturers to select from. Take drywall - this includes Type X, mold-resistant, fire resistant, shaft liner, glas-mat, and everything in between. Plus you’ve got USG, Certainteed, National Gypsum, American Gypsum, Pabco and more to select from - so lots of products, lots of brands.
Tips on sourcing:
- Use Green Badger advanced search option
- Refer to Green Badger’s product guide LEED Product Guide - Options 1 & 2 Products Only (getgreenbadger.com)
Question 7
This is my first LEED project, and I have no clue where to start. Where can I find resources on finding LEED qualified products?
Good news! There are a ton of FREE resources available to help you. The most comprehensive guide to all things LEED construction is the Ultimate Guide to LEED Construction. It walks you through all LEED construction credits, provides requirements and strategies in plain English, and is chock-full of examples of documentation, product information, where to find them and overall everything you need to successfully navigate the LEED requirements on your construction project.
If you’re more of a visual learner, consider Green Badger Academy - a web-based coursed designed to take you from LEED novice to LEED ninja in less than 3 hours. A lot of the same content as the Ultimate Guide without all the reading.
For products specifically, Green Badger provides a boatload of resources. For starters, check out:
Question 8
What CSI divisions do I need to focus on (and do I need to worry about MEP)?
- Main focus is on Divisions 3-10 for BPDO
- For LEM there are 8 categories you could pursue; you will need to be compliant in 4 categories to earn 3 points for LEM
- MEP insulation is exempt from LEM
- Though it helps with BPDO
- Plumbing fixtures
- A very small number of HVAC products (H.B. Fuller, Knauf, Aeroflex, Tane, Johns Manville, STI Specified Technologies)
Question 9
How do I deal with furniture?
Furniture is completely optional! A lot of times it is out of the scope of a general contractor, and frankly you can ignore it. That said, a lot of furniture products have EPDs, HPDs, and recycled content so could help you if you’re hurting in any of those categories. Just note, that if you include furniture in the materials credits, you’ll need to include the cost of all furniture in your total costs, which may make earning the sourcing of raw material credits category more challenging. Note: interiors projects are required to include the furniture cost as part of the total project costs.
Also, you can target furniture in the BPDO credits or low-emitting - you don’t have to do both (though you can). For low-emitting, the furniture category includes all seating, desks and tables, filing/storage, free-standing cabinetry, workspaces, and furnishing items. Office accessories may be excluded. For low-emitting credits, look for Indoor Advantage Gold Certification, GREENGUARD Gold Certification, and the Furniture Emissions Evaluation. The Furniture emissions evaluation requires that products are tested in accordance with ANSI/BIFMA Standard Method M7.1-2011 (R2016) and comply with ANSI/BIFMA e3-2014e or e32019e Furniture Sustainability Standard, Sections 7.6.1, 7.6.2 or 7.6.3.
Just remember, for low-emitting, you need to add every relevant furniture product - you can’t exclude any from the referenced categories. Need some insight into which furniture manufacturers have abundant options for your project? Check out our Interior Architectural Finishes & Furniture for LEED e-book!
Question 10
What do I need to ask for my subs?
Subcontractors play a crucial role in the LEED process. They are intimately familiar with their products, the contribute to waste reduction strategies, and their efforts are key to good indoor air quality during the construction process.
There are a few key initiatives you can implement to help them understand their role in the process.
- Host a specific subcontractor LEED training - if you need a resource for it, Here’s a great 15 minute training video that can be used.
- Provide and require the use of a LEED submittal cover sheet. This is key to make sure you get all the required data points for your LEED submission - not just which products are being used, but the cost and quantities as well. Here’s an example of what a good submittal cover sheet and LEED backup document looks like.
- Don’t just cover LEED once - including LEED as a topic after toolbox talks, safety meetings, etc are better than one big dose. Work with subs to clean up their submittals so they know what is expected of them.
- Make sure the subs have reviewed the sustainability spec (typically Division 1, 01 83 00 is common) - not just their relevant spec section. Their LEED reporting and compliance is contractually obligated by inclusion in the spec, and they need to review and understand the obligations.