Overview of LEED

The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™ has brought all sectors of the building industry together to develop a voluntary, national standard in the development of “high-performing, sustainable buildings.”

According to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED provides a complete framework for assessing building performance and meeting sustainability goals. LEED emphasizes state of the art strategies for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

LEED and Polyiso

Increasingly, architects, specifiers, and building owners are challenged to create  high performance buildings. To do so they must look to high performance building materials such as polyiso. Due to its high thermal efficiency, zero ozone depletion potential, and negligible global warming potential, polyiso is an ideal choice for LEED building design. As recognized for its environmental benefits by Environmental Building News, polyiso roof insulation can help building owners, architects and specifiers gain credits under at least two of LEED’s six rating categories including:

• Energy and atmosphere
• Materials and resources

LEED and Atlas

Atlas Roofing Corporation manufactures several products that may help gain credits under the following LEED rating categories:

Energy & Atmosphere

Minimum Energy Performance: Prerequisite 2

Thermally efficient Atlas ACFoam® roof insulation facilitates compliance with ASHRAE 90.1-2007 and local energy codes.

Optimize Energy Performance: Credit 1

Atlas ACFoam® provides the highest thermal resistance per inch of material and can economically contribute to achieving one of the LEED levels of optimized energy performance.

Materials & Resources

Construction Waste Management: Credit 2

If the total percentage of reused materials in a project does not meet the minimum levels stated in Materials and Resources, Credit 1, Building Reuse, these reuse activities may be applied to this credit.

Materials Reuse: Credit 3

Atlas ACFoam® can be and often is reused in order to reduce demand for virgin materials and reduce waste.

Recycled Content: Credit 4

Atlas ACFoam®-II can be used toward one of the levels of recycled materials credit.

Local/Regional Materials: Credit 5

Atlas has seven polyiso insulation plants and sources of raw materials across North America. Therefore, the use of ACFoam® roof insulation may contribute towards gaining this credit, depending on the project location and the version of LEED being used as the basis of deisgn.

More Information

For more information on Atlas LEED Potential, or other Atlas product information, please visit our product pages at www.AtlasRoofing.com.

For PIMA’s suggested opportunities to incorporate polyiso in a LEED building design, see their Advisory on LEED and Polyiso.

For more information on LEED, please visit www.usgbc.org.