LEED GA v4 Chapter 11

Reduce Contaminants/Quality IEQ (Synergies within Indoor Environmental Quality)

Cleaning with environmentally friendly products helps employees avoid breathing in harmful chemicals. Installing the right materials will do the same.

Common Conflicts: Daylighting vs. Glare and Heat

Daylighting can improve employee productivity and reduce the need for indoor lighting. Reducing indoor lighting can reduce heat from lights as well as the need to cool an area due to indoor lighting. At the same time, glare control is listed as one major problem with daylighting.

Materials and Resources/Heat Island (Sustainable Sites and Materials and Resources)

During the whole building design process, many materials can reduce the heat island effect when properly incorporated.

Energy and Atmosphere and Indoor Environmental Quality (Synergies within Energy and Atmosphere)

A building that provides task lighting allows its occupants to control the amount of lighting they need to work. Better lighting results in better productivity. Task lighting can reduce the amount of light needed for a building as only individual areas need to be illuminated instead of entire spaces. daylighting as well

Site Selection/Building Footprint and Rainwater Runoff/Treatment (Synergies within Sustainable Sites)

A site with lots of open space and a small building footprint usually has less rainwater runoff to handle due to onsite infiltration.

Sustainable Sites

Assessment, Conservation, Restoration, Rainwater Management, Heat Island Reduction

Site Selection (Building Orientation) and Energy Use (Sustainable Sites Synergies with Energy and Atmosphere)

Building orientation on a site can significantly impact energy use as it will play a role in providing natural light that reduces the need for electric lighting.

Indoor Environmental Quality

Ensure Excellent Indoor Air Quality (IEQ) and Comfort, Reduce Toxins and Pollutants

Innovation in Design

Exemplary Performance, New & Innovative Practices, LEED APs

Heat Island Effect/Rainwater Management (Synergies within Sustainable Sites)

Installing a vegetated roof will reduce the heat island effect as well as reduce the amount of rainwater leaving the site. Vegetated roofs can also add insulation to the building, reducing the heating and cooling requirements, and thus saving energy.

Water Efficiency and Materials and Resources (Synergies within Water Efficiency)

If you are going to purchase items to make your building more water efficient, why not use items made from recycled materials or that are made locally?

Common Conflicts: Increased Ventilation vs Energy Use

In LEED, points are given to both increasing ventilation for improved indoor air quality and reducing the amount of energy the building will use. It is a common problem that increasing ventilation by operating the HVAC at a higher rate, the owner may need to purchase larger HVAC equipment or run equipment more often. One possible solution is to remove heating and cooling from the concept of ventilation.

Increased Efficiency/Reduced Demand (Synergies within Water Efficiency)

Increasing fixture efficiency can reduce the water demand from city supplies and aquifers, which reduces operating costs through lower water and sewer fees.

Purchasing Renewables/Reducing the Demand for Non-Renewable Energy (Synergies within Energy and Atmosphere)

It may be debatable if it is better to plug your electric car into an outlet powered by a coal burning power plant or just burn gasoline in a normal car, but purchasing green energy comes with no such debate. Invest in the system...

Reduce Light Pollution/Energy Use (Sustainable Sites Synergies with Energy and Atmosphere)

Light pollution can negatively impact nocturnal species and even have adverse effects on humans. Excess light wastes energy, as do lights left on when no one is around who needs the light.

Occupant Comfort and Thermal & Lighting Control (Synergies within Indoor Environmental Quality)

Lighting, views, and thermal temperatures and controls all contribute to the goal of comfortable employees. Missing opportunities in one of these areas can reduce the satisfaction of employees—consider a wonderfully lit office with views of a park, but 90% of the occupants consider the office space too hot.

Sustainable Sites & Local Materials (Sustainable Sites and Materials and Resources)

Local and regional materials are materials that can have less environmental impact. Choosing a site in close proximity to these materials will be advantageous for the project by reducing transportation fees and reducing the pollution associated with longer transportation of faraway materials. Projects can reuse buildings. Refurbishing warehouses, historic buildings, and other buildings instead of creating new buildings is one way to reduce disturbances to land, generate less waste, and increase reused and salvaged material.

Common Conflicts: Renewable/Recycled vs. Transportation

Logistically coordinating transportation of materials that are beneficial to the environment to the job site will involve tradeoffs.

Materials and Resources and Indoor Environmental Quality (Synergies within Materials and Resources)

Low VOC materials and Indoor Environmental Quality provide a tremendous incentive to choose materials that are low in volatile organic compounds—materials that give off much fewer pollutants and contaminants. Since the team is going to want to purchase and install low VOC materials, why not see if you can find materials that are also recycled, salvaged, or produced locally?

Measuring Performance—Reducing Energy Demand (Synergies within Energy and Atmosphere)

Many points are given in LEED for lowering energy use from a baseline. Measuring systems' performances and adjusting them when out of alignment will reduce wasted energy.

Site Selection/Transportation (Synergies within Location and Transportation)

Many potential options exist for building within an urban landscape, but to choose a site near public transportation can help in many LEED areas. Many employees view convenient public transportation as a benefit to their jobs

Energy and Atmosphere and Materials and Resources (Synergies within Energy and Atmosphere)

Material choice affects the heat island effect. In a similar way, materials can affect how much energy is used on a project.

Water Efficiency

Outdoor and indoor water use, performance measurement

Energy and Atmosphere

Reduction, efficiency, renewables, ongoing performance

Materials and Resources

Reuse, waste management, life-cycle impacts, purchasing

Location and Transportation

Site Selection, Reuse, Restore Brownfields, Alternative Transportation

Common Conflicts: City Revenues vs. Environmental Savings

The authority over the project—whether a city, unincorporated zone, or state rules and regulations—can sometimes be at cross purposes with environmental efforts.

Water Efficiency and Energy and Atmosphere (Synergies within Water Efficiency)

Think of the energy used to heat water for manufacturing processes, showers, or bathroom faucets—using less water will impact the energy used to provide it. You don't have to power a sprinkler system if you don't need irrigation.

Credit Categories

The credits in these categories may vary, but the intents of the credits are so similar that you can apply overall knowledge of these shared intents to any LEED project.

Synergies

The goal of a project should be to maximize positive synergies between design decisions for improved employee health, lower environmental impact, and construction costs while also avoiding conflict or negative synergies.

Site and Contaminates/Views (Location and Transportation Synergies with Indoor Environmental Quality)

The project team can work to choose a location that will provide both views for employees as well as choose a location where outdoor contaminates will be minimized. Although "views" do not necessarily mean a good view or a view of nature, a site with the ability to give employees views of the city, rivers, and green trees is better than a site that will provide views of brick walls or the inside of the parking garage.

Whole Building Design Process

To create effective synergies, a team must use the whole-building design process as soon as possible in the project. Even if a building has been built and is undergoing a major renovation, the team still has the ability to use a whole "project" design process.

Redevelopment/Government Incentives/Community Benefits (Synergies within Location and Transportation)

Urban redevelopment or Brownfield redevelopment normally means you are developing in a dense development area. These projects sometimes receive incentives from local/state government to offset any remediation costs associated with the site.

Site Reuse/Habitat Protection (Synergies within Location and Transportation)

Using a previously developed site means that an undeveloped piece of land is not affected by construction activities or the resulting building. The land saved from development could be prime farmland, wetlands, or other sensitive areas. Site reuse also prevents urban sprawl. Although other reasons for urban sprawl exist, site reuse is one method of reducing it.

On-Site Renewable Energy— Reducing Energy Demand (Synergies within Energy and Atmosphere)

Using energy created on site will reduce the demand on the public energy grid.

Protect & Restore Open Space/Water Efficient Landscaping (Sustainable Site Synergies with Water Efficiency)

Using native and adaptive plants as part of your sustainable site can earn major points in water efficiency. The best landscaping would be one that could thrive without regular irrigation.

Building Footprint/Habitat Protection (Synergies within Sustainable Sites)

consider how a smaller footprint allows for more open space, protection of natural habitats, and even the reduction of light pollution