The newest version of LEED, LEED v5, is an ambitious step to making the world of construction even more sustainable, energy-efficient, and environmentally friendly. As an architect, staying on top of new sustainable initiatives — like LEED v5 — can help you determine how to meet credit categories and make your entire building process as sustainable as possible.
LEED v5 is built on three main frameworks, as outlined on the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) website. These three impact areas are:
- “Decarbonization by targeting reductions in operational, embodied, refrigerants, and transportation emissions.”
- “Quality of Life by improving health, well-being, resilience, and equity for building occupants and their communities, making spaces not just environmentally friendly but also people friendly.”
- “Ecological Conservation and Restoration by emphasizing strategies that limit environmental degradation and contribute to the restoration of ecosystems, ensuring that our built environment exists harmoniously with nature.”
The aim of LEED v5 and the USGBC is to drive the built environment toward a near-zero carbon reality. In this article, we’ll break down the LEED v5 credit categories that Sheffield Metals can help you meet.
1. Integrative Process, Planning and Assessments (IP)
This category focuses on the built environment’s role in global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Buildings are responsible for 21% of total emissions and 31% of global carbon emissions in 2019 alone. Keep in mind there’s different types of emissions, including:
- Global GHG emissions: Include all greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other trace gases.
- Global carbon emissions: Usually referring to carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), which are released by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas.
- Operations carbon emissions: This refers to the energy used to run a building — lighting, heating, cooling, and running equipment.
How Sheffield Metals Can Support:
Onsite portable rollformers can significantly minimize a project’s carbon footprint. With the ability to form panels onsite, contractors can cut down on transportation of materials, significantly reducing the amount of CO2 released — by up to four times. Sheffield Metals is partnered with the leading provider of portable rollformers, New Tech Machinery.
Cool metal roofing, referring to certain PVDF paint systems with special pigments that reflect the sun’s energy to dissipate heat, can reduce energy usage by 10% to 30%. This type of roofing can be especially effective in hotter climates with hours of intense sunshine. Cool metal roofing also helps defend against the urban heat island effect, which can lead to blackouts of whole cities if left unchecked.
2. Materials and Resources (MR) – MRc2 – Reduce Embodied Carbon
Embodied carbon refers to emissions generated during transportation, installation, and manufacturing of products. This takes into account emissions over the entire building lifecycle and focuses on material reuse and waste management practices.
How Sheffield Metals Can Support:
We offer Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), developed by the Metal Construction Association (MCA), for steel and aluminum products. EPDs show how much carbon is involved in our materials from start to finish. Our documentation also includes whole-building life-cycle assessments (LCA)s.
Being able to track carbon emissions throughout an entire project is essential for those seeking LEED Platinum certification, which requires a 20% reduction in embodied carbon.
3. Materials and Resources (MR) – MRc3 Low Emitting Materials
This category aims to reduce chemical contaminants that can damage air quality and the environment.
How Sheffield Metals Can Support:
Sheffield Metals offers VOC emissions evaluations for panel systems and accessories. Compliant materials include:
- Paints and coatings
- Adhesives and sealants
- Underlayment
Our products help support an environment of clean indoor air quality, so that both installers and occupants will be protected from harmful chemical contaminants.
4. Materials and Resources (MR) – MRp2 Quantify and Assess Embodied Carbon
Embodied carbon refers to the greenhouse gas emissions of the entire building lifecycle, from start to finish. This section’s goal is to quantify how embodied carbon impacts global warming, and to track the embodied carbon emissions for each material, defined by the product’s GWP/unit times the amount of material used.
How Sheffield Metals Can Support:
Our MCA-issued documents include exact values for global warming potential (GWP) and embodied carbon emissions per unit of steel and aluminum cladding. These detailed breakdowns will help you meet LEED v5 requirements.
5. Project Priorities (PR) PRc1
LEED v5 introduced a new level of flexibility to the Project Priorities category. This new update encourages innovation and region-specific strategies in sustainability. Project teams can now pursue:
- Regional priority credits: based on a project’s unique geography
- Project-type credits: targeted to building use or typology
- Exemplary performance: for going above and beyond standard LEED credits
How Sheffield Metals Can Support:
Sheffield Metals provides a variety of materials and resources to help teams meet project priority credits, including sustainability documentation, sustainable products, and regional expertise to get you the right information for your unique location.
How Sheffield Metals Can Support Architects Attempting to Meet LEED V5
- Portable rollforming support: On-site panel fabrication helps reduce transportation emissions and can cut down on wasted materials.
- VOC evaluations: Documentation for coatings, adhesives, and underlayment will help track emissions and meet LEED credit categories.
- Industry EPDs: Environmental Product Declarations allow you to track carbon emissions throughout the entire project.
- Cool metal roofing: Special pigments in PVDF coatings help retain the sun’s heat, cutting down on energy usage.
- Partnership with the MCA: Our long-standing membership and close partnership with the Metal Construction Association assists Sheffield Metals in providing accurate technical data on our materials.
- Expert assistance: With an in-house architectural and technical team, Sheffield Metals offers expert guidance to help you meet LEED requirements and make your project as sustainable and durable as possible.
- Quality Materials: Long-lasting, trusted metal roofing materials will work for decades without replacements or excessive maintenance.
Get Support from Sheffield Metals for Meeting LEED v5 Credit Categories
LEED v5 is another big step toward making the construction industry even more sustainable. As an architect, it can be challenging trying to meet specific credit categories while also balancing the preferences of the building owner with the structural integrity of the building.
At Sheffield Metals, we’re happy to support architects with architectural and technical teams that can provide the information you need to complete your project.
Feel free to contact us today and check out our additional content in the Architect Hub, where you’ll find content, tools, and resources created specifically for architects in the metal roofing industry.
