SiteScapes Site Furnishing Sustainability

1. What is LEED certification?
2. What are the benefits of LEED certification?
3. How does LEED work?
4. How does one achieve LEED certification?
5. Tips for Getting LEED Certified
6. Are SiteScapes products LEED certified?
7. Helpful Links


What is LEED certification?
In the United States and in a number of other countries around the world, LEED certification is the recognized standard for measuring building sustainability. Achieving LEED certification is the best way for you to demonstrate that your building project is truly "green."


What are the benefits of LEED certification?
LEED certification, which includes a rigorous third-party commissioning process, offers compelling proof to you, your clients, your peers and the public at large that you've achieved your environmental goals and your building is performing as designed. Getting certified allows you take advantage of a growing number of state and local government incentives, and can help boost press interest in your project.

How does LEED work?
LEED is a point based system where projects earn LEED points for staisfying specific green building criteria. Within each of the six LEED credit categories, projects must satisfy particular prerequisites and earn points. The six categories include Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Materials & Resources, Indoor Enviromental Quality and Innovation in Design (projects can earn ID points for green building innovations). The number of points the project earns determines the level of LEED Certification the project receives. LEED certification is available in four progressive levels: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.


How does one achieve LEED certification?
The U.S. Green Building Council's LEED website provides tools for building professionals, including:

• Information on the LEED certification process.
• LEED documents, such as checklists and reference guides. Standards are now available or in development for the following project types:
• New commercial construction and major renovation projects (LEED-NC)
• Existing building operations (LEED-EB)
• Commercial interiors projects (LEED-CI)
• Core and shell projects (LEED-CS)
• Homes (LEED-H)
• Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND)
• A list of LEED-certified projects
• A directory of LEED-accredited professionals
• Information on LEED training workshops
• A calendar of green building industry conferences
  

Tips for Getting LEED Certified

• Set a clear environmental target. Before you begin the design phase of your project, decide what level of LEED certification you are aiming for and settle on a firm overall budget. Also consider including an optional higher certification target -- a "stretch" goal -- to stimulate creativity.
• Set a clear and adequate budget. Higher levels of LEED certification, such as Platinum, do require additional expenditure and should be budgeted for accordingly
• Stick to your budget and your LEED goal. Throughout out the design and building process, be sure your entire project team is focused on meeting your LEED goal on budget. Maintain the environmental and economic integrity of your project at every turn.
• Engineer for Life Cycle Value As you value-engineer your project, be sure to examine green investments in terms of how they will affect expenses over the entire life of the building. Before you decide to cut a line item, look first at its relationship to other features to see if keeping it will help you achieve money-saving synergies, as well as LEED credits. Many energy-saving features allow for the resizing or elimination of other equipment, or reduce total capital costs by paying for themselves immediately or within a few months of operation. Prior to beginning, set your goals for "life cycle" value-engineering rather than "first cost" value-engineering.
• Hire LEED-accredited professionals. Thousands of architects, consultants, engineers, product marketers, environmentalists and other building industry professionals around the country have a demonstrated knowledge of green building and the LEED rating system and process -- and can assist you in meeting your LEED goal. These professionals can suggest ways to earn LEED credits without extra cost, identify means of offsetting certain expenses with savings in other areas and spot opportunities for synergies in your project.

Are SiteScapes products LEED certified?
No, LEED applies to green building projects. Individual products can contribute to points under the rating system; LEED criteria are performance based. In attempting to meet those requirements, LEED practitoners identify products that have desired attributes. However, some LEED criteria do require specific product data as a part of a succesful submittal.

Click here for SiteScapes LEED product information.


Links

• U.S. Green Building Council
• World Green Building Council
• Frequently Asked Questions

- download pdf version

STEEL: SiteScapes, Inc. purchases its steel materials from steel mills that primarily utilize Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) technology. The EAF technology makes use of post-consumer scrap steel by melting it down for reuse in new steel materials.

SiteScapes, Inc. products are manufactured of primarily steel flat bar, steel solid square bar and steel sheet materials. As you can see from the below data, our mill vendors report excellent levels of recycled content in each of these materials allowing SiteScapes, Inc. to provide environmentally friendly steel products for use in "Green Building" applications or LEED programs.

Product Recycled Content
Steel Bar Products 99%
Steel Sheet Products 70%

DUCTILE CAST -Bench Ends: SiteScapes, Inc. ductile cast iron bench ends are poured with 60% post-consumer materials and 40% nodular pig iron. In addition, a small percentage of the make up of the nodular pig iron (iron ore, coke and limestone) is also post-consumer resources.

GRAY CAST - Tree Grates: All tree grate base materials are 100% post-consumer materials. These materials are derived from the melting of shredded auto bodies, scrap steel, used engine blocks etc. No pig iron is utilized in this production process.

WOOD: SiteScapes, Inc. purchases its wood materia ls from IBAMA (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and the Renewal of Natural Resources) registered mills. All wood is certified to provide the product origin and compliance with all legal log harvesting policies. In addition, these mills participate in "Fields to Forests" reforestation programs. As a result, a tropical tree is replanted in a certified plantation program for every 500 board feet of lumber supplied.

RECYCLED PLASTIC: High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) is the only product used as the raw material base in the production of these items. No other products such as, wood pulp, wood fiber, or fiberglass is used. 60% of all items used on our products derive from post consumer (recycled) or post industrial (scrap) materials.

MR Credit 4.1: Recycled Content: 10% (post-consumer + ½ pre-consumer)

Intent:
Increase demand for building products that incorporate recycled content materials, thereby reducing impacts resulting from extraction and processing of virgin materials.

Requirements:
Use materials with recycled content such that the sum of post-consumer recycled content plus one-half of the pre-consumer content constitutes at least 10% (based on cost) of the total value of the materials in the project.

MR Credit 4.2: Recycled Content: 20% (post-consumer + ½ pre-consumer)

Intent:
Increase demand for building products that incorporate recycled content materials, thereby reducing the impacts resulting from extraction and processing of virgin materials.

Requirements:
Use materials with recycled content such that the sum of post-consumer recycled content plus one-half of the pre-consumer content constitutes an additional 10% beyond MR Credit 4.1.

SiteScapes Contribution:
SiteScapes products contain 70% – 99% recycled content. Recycled content depends on product type. For a full recycled content description see our LEED product information.

SiteScapes products must be aggregated with all other recycled content materials in order to achieve this credit. Innovation credits are available for higher levels of recycled content used on LEED projects.

MR Credit 5.1: Regional Materials: 10% Extracted, Processed & Manufactured Regionally

Intent:
Increase demand for building materials and products that are extracted and manufactured within the region, thereby supporting the use of indigenous resources and reducing the environmental impacts resulting from transportation.

Requirements:
Use building materials or products that have been extracted, harvested or recovered, as well as manufactured, within 500 miles of the project site for a minimum of 10% (based on cost) of the total materials value.

MR Credit 5.2: Regional Materials: 20% Extracted, Processed & Manufactured Regionally

Intent:
Increase demand for building materials and products that are extracted and manufactured within the region, thereby supporting the use of indigenous resources and reducing the environmental impacts resulting from transportation.

Requirements:
Use building materials or products that have been extracted, harvested or recovered, as well as manufactured, within 500 miles of the project site for an additional 10% beyond MR Credit 5.1 (total of 20%, based on cost) of the total materials' value.

SiteScapes Contribution:
SiteScapes is centrally located in Lincoln, NE. As such, we are able to provide site furnishings to a large section of the midwest that meets this "regional" requirement. For more info see our LEED Regional map.

MR Credit 7.0: Certified Wood

Intent:
Encourage environmentally responsible forest management.

Requirement:
Use a minimum of 50% of wood-based materials and products, which are certified in accordance with the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) Principles and Criteria, for wood building components. These components include, but are not limited to, structural framing and general dimensional framing, flooring, sub-flooring, wood doors and finishes. Only include materials permanently installed in the project. Furniture may be included, providing it is included consistently in MR Credits 3–7.

SiteScapes Contribution:
SiteScapes Avondale wood slat products are available as an FSC-certified composite product. Be sure to specify when ordering. SiteScapes products must be aggregated with all other certified wood materials in order to achieve this credit

As part of the Materials and Resource credits, LEED offers points for products that are that are extracted and manufactured locally. LEED has defined locally as a 500 mile radius from the project's location. Because SiteScapes is located in Lincoln, NE we can provide site furnishings to a large section of the midwest that meet this criteria.



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Included below are some tools to help determine your own local region.

• Freemaptools.com - Draw a radius around your project
• InfoPlease - Calculate distance between cities