USGBC offers new LEED pilot credit: Building Material Human Hazard and Exposure Assessment

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced a new LEED pilot credit: Building Material Human Hazard & Exposure Assessment.

The credit aims to encourage building teams and manufacturers to assess human health-related exposure scenarios for products during installation and beyond.

“We have a focus on transparency and optimization so specifiers can know what they are using and can reward innovation,” said Scot Horst, chief product officer, USGBC. “But understanding how a material impacts human health requires a full understanding of hazard and exposure. The new pilot credit is a first step toward evaluating exposure by encouraging product inventories in order to prioritize decision making.”

The pilot credit is intended to reward manufacturers who perform hazard and exposure assessments designed to help minimize human health impacts during installation and use of their products. By requiring exposure to be considered during product development, make linkages can be made between the product’s ingredient inventory and hazard assessment required by the existing Materials Ingredients credit and performance testing required by LEED’s Low Emitting Materials credits.

A guide focusing on the critical role of grid interactivity in building decarbonization was recently published by ASHRAE. The Grid-Interactive Buildings for Decarbonization: Design and Operation Resource Guide provides information on maximizing carbon reduction through buildings’ interaction with the electric power grid.

75 Top Building Products | Dec 13, 2023

75 top building products for 2023

From a bladeless rooftop wind energy system, to a troffer light fixture with built-in continuous visible light disinfection, innovation is plentiful in Building Design+Construction's annual 75 Top Products report.

Codes and Standards | Dec 11, 2023

Washington state tries new approach to phase out fossil fuels in new construction

After pausing a heat pump mandate earlier this year after a federal court overturned Berkeley, Calif.’s ban on gas appliances in new buildings, Washington state enacted a new code provision that seems poised to achieve the same goal.

Green | Dec 11, 2023

U.S. has tools to meet commercial building sector decarbonization goals early

The U.S. has the tools to reduce commercial building-related emissions to reach target goals in 2029, earlier than what it committed to when it signed the Paris Agreement, according to a report by the U.S. Green Building Council.

AA new report offers guidance for buying and using greener building materials.

Industry Research | Dec 9, 2023

Two new reports provide guidance for choosing healthier building products

The authors, Perkins&Will and the Healthy Building Network, home in on drywall, flooring, and insulation.The authors, Perkins&Will and the Healthy Building Network, home in on drywall, flooring, and insulation.

Yale University breaks ground on the nation's largest Living Building student housing complex

University Buildings | Dec 8, 2023

Yale University breaks ground on nation's largest Living Building student housing complex

A groundbreaking on Oct. 11 kicked off a project aiming to construct the largest Living Building Challenge-certified residence on a university campus. The Living Village, a 45,000 sf home for Yale University Divinity School graduate students, “will make an ecological statement about the need to build in harmony with the natural world while training students to become ‘apostles of the environment’,” according to Bruner/Cott, which is leading the design team that includes Höweler + Yoon Architecture and Andropogon Associates.