LEED - Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Building codes are changing across the country, from Massachusetts to California, mandating greater energy efficiency and sustainability. The US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is setting the pace. US Tile helps designers achieve LEED point credits in more categories than any other sloped roofing products on the market today.
US Tile clay roofing products meet the requirements for a wide variety of LEED point credits. Points may vary based on the location, type of building, colors and products used. The following list represents the current areas where US Tile products can help your project achieve LEED points credits:
Heat Island Effect - Sustainable Site Credit 7.1 and 7.2 (1 point each)
Reduce heat island to minimize impact on microclimate and human and wildlife habitat
US Tile offers the deepest, most vibrant Cool Roof color palette with over 75% of US Tiles product colors certified as Cool Roof by the CRRC with a SRI value greater than 29.
Optimize Energy Performance - Energy & Atmosphere Credit: (1-10 points)
Achieve increased levels of energy performance above the baseline in the prerequisite standard to reduce environmental and economic impact associated with excessive energy use.
US Tiles' Cool Roof color palette, Solé fully integrated solar system and excellent emissivity and emittance all contribute to increasing the base line energy calculations for buildings, optimizing energy performance and making multiple LEED points for this category available.
Recycled Content - Materials and Resources (MR) Credit 4.1 and 4.2 (1 point each)
Building products that incorporate recycled content materials to decrease impact associated with extracting and processing virgin materials.
US Tile uses clays harvested from many sources including waste product from mining operations. The use of recycled clays in our products gives our tile a recycled content typically of between 49% and 59%, meeting the requirements for both credit 4.1 and 4.2.
Regional Materials - Materials and Resources Credit 5.1 and 5.2 (1 point each)
Use of building materials and products that are extracted and manufactured within the region, supporting the use of indigenous resources and reducing the environmental impact resulting from transportation.
US Tile uses clays mined locally (within 30 miles) to our manufacturing facilities in California, minimizing the transportation footprint and maxamizing the shipping area to meet the requirements for LEED credit.
Design - Innovation in Design - Cradle to Cradle (1 point)
The USGBC has recognized the sustainable value of products that are certified as Cradle to Cradle by awarding a special Design in Innovation point for projects that use Cradle to Cradle certified products.
All domestically produced US Tile products are Cradle to Cradle certified and are the only roofing tile products in the world to be awarded this designation.
Design - Innovation in Design Credit 1.1 - 1.4 (1-4 points)
Design teams and projects have the opportunity to be awarded points for exceptional performance above the requirements set by the LEED-NC Green Building System and/or innovative performance in Green Building categories not specifically addressed by the LEED-NC Green Building Rating System.