LEED - Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

LEED is a set of standards originally intended to promote the use of environmentally progressive and sustainable techniques in construction. As it applies to furniture, there is no clear standard at this time although it appears that several of the larger furniture manufacturers are doing their best to get specs written around their products.

In its pure form, LEED would have encouraged, the reuse and reworking of materials for the lowest possible impact on the resources of the planet. Of course it is very difficult for large manufacturers of building materials and furniture to produce what they are used to producing, when they are told not to produce it.

Instead, as I did a cursory examination of the specs as they evolved from one version to the next, I see more things getting LEED credits (More credits, higher score) for things like limiting off-gassing and 5% Resource Reuse. For instance, in LEED-NC Version 2.1, you get 1 point for 5% resource reuse and another for 10% resource reuse, but not a single point more for 100% resource reuse. So someone making a chair using 100% recycled materials would get the same credit for these items as someone making a chair with only the arms being from recycled content.

In the end, I suspect that one will have to have a high LEED score to be considered for large government and commercial projects. To get the high LEED score, one will have to submit their products to some certified provider who will charge an outrageous sum to provide the certification. Then the 10% recycled chair will have a LEED score, while a used chair from a local supplier will not. The small local supplier will not be able to afford the certification. So the 10% chair will win the bid and the used chair will go to the dump.

Probably not what LEED was originally intended to do. With a few tweaks I think LEED could be a powerful force in reducing our countries dependence on foreign oil while helping green the planet. By encouraging the re-use of materials more local labor will be employed, keeping U.S. dollars at home. The impact on our environment in both the reduction of waste and off-gassing could be substantial. Hopefully LEED will be reworked to give even more points for higher percentages of re-used content.

SRK