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Evaluation of Changes between the Material and Resource Category of LEED v4.0 and v3.0 as it Pertains to New Construction and Major Renovations

Pai, Vibha
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2876-5796
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin151203942639125

Abstract Details

2017, MS, University of Cincinnati, Engineering and Applied Science: Civil Engineering.
Today most structures are developed from huge number of materials, each with a particular function and complex assembly requirement (Crisman, 2017). All these materials which are used to create a building, are responsible for a large amount of global energy consumption, both in the form of embodied energy and operational energy. Until recently, it was believed that embodied energy formed a very small percentage of energy consumption as opposed to the operational energy over the life span of the building. But, Sartori et.al 2007 in their study presented that the embodied energy of a conventional building is up to 38% of the life cycle energy use. This implies that material selection plays a crucial role in reducing the overall environmental impact of the building. The material and resource (MR) category of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) rating system aims at reducing the embodied energy of the building through a life cycle approach. But even after five years of the launch, v4.0 certified projects scored a lesser average point than v3.0 certified projects. This research aims at providing a roadmap and a compendium of resources to the architects and sustainability consultants to help achieve more points in the MR category of LEED. To do so, points scored by certified projects were analyzed. This revealed that construction and demolition waste management credit was the most popular credit. On the other hand, credit involving building and material reuse were rarely pursued. Secondly, a web questionnaire survey to understand the credit compliance pattern in v4.0 and those which lacks clarity towards achieving compliance. The survey revealed that the whole building life cycle assessment (WBLCA) compliance path is likely going to be the most popular compliance path under the MR credit building life cycle impact assessment for new construction projects but none of the certified new construction projects scored points by pursuing WBLCA. This lead to the third component in which the process of conducting a WBLCA as per LEED requirements has been presented by using low rise commercial building case study that is going to be located in Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition, material substitution strategies to reduce the global warming potential by 29.36%, ozone depletion potential by 14.88%, acidification potential by 27.83%, eutrophication potential by 8.66%, smog potential by 25.82% and non-renewable energy consumption by 32.58% which can help achieve projects up to 3 points, have been presented. The web-questionnaire survey revealed the lack of clarity towards meeting the requirements of compliance paths, which involves installing eco-labelled products. Therefore, the last component of this report presents a detailed discussion of eco-labels, it’s databases and the information which must be present in the summary document for LEED® compliance. Currently, different databases cumulatively contain 845 compliant EPD of which 65 are industry wide EPD, 120 compliant HPD and 109 compliant C2C certificates.
Hazem Elzarka, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Anton Harfmann, M.Arch. (Committee Member)
Julian Wang, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
139 p.
Civil Engineering
LEED; Whole building life cycle assessment; Eco labels; Material and resource; GreenScreen benchmark; Multi attribute optimization

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Citations

  • Pai, V. (2017). Evaluation of Changes between the Material and Resource Category of LEED v4.0 and v3.0 as it Pertains to New Construction and Major Renovations [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin151203942639125

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Pai, Vibha. Evaluation of Changes between the Material and Resource Category of LEED v4.0 and v3.0 as it Pertains to New Construction and Major Renovations. 2017. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin151203942639125.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Pai, Vibha. "Evaluation of Changes between the Material and Resource Category of LEED v4.0 and v3.0 as it Pertains to New Construction and Major Renovations." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin151203942639125

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin151203942639125
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.