SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURING
Shea Concrete Products takes great pride in our sustainable manufacturing practices. In 2000, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) developed a third-party validation system for the construction industry. This program, called Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED), has become the industry standard. There are 12 categories, with the total number of points earned determining the level of LEED certification.
With precast, you can score points in two credit categories — Sustainable Sites and Material & Resources. There are up to 10 credits available to projects using precast concrete products. With a possible 10% of your LEED score coming from using just one type of building material, this makes precast concrete the right choice for almost any project.
Why is Having LEED Certification Important?
Applying for a LEED certification shows the project is serious about saving money, conserving energy, reducing water consumption, making better material choices, and driving innovation. While precast concrete has been saving builders time and money for years, the additional incentive of LEED credits is another added bonus for using precast concrete.
How does precast affect the LEED score?
There are three possible credits available in the sustainable sites category. They are:
1) Site Development: Protect or Restor Habitat: (up to 2 credits available)
The fact that precast concrete is manufactured in-house and delivered to the site ready to install it requires very minimal site disturbance.
2) Stormwater Design Quantity Control:
Most stormwater management plans require structures in the design to properly handle the storm water runoff. Precast concrete products are the superior choice.
There are 7 possible credits available in Material & Resources categories
1) Construction waste management (Up to 2 points available):
Due to precast concrete products being plant cast and delivered as site-ready, this creates minimal to zero amounts of on-site waste material.
2) Recycled Content 10% (20%) (post-consumer + ½ pre-consumer), (Up to 2 points):
Shea’s precast concrete products contain fly ash, which is a supplementary cementitious material that will add to the project’s recycled content goals.
3) Regional Materials 10% (20%) Extracted, Processed & Manufactured Regionally, (Up to 2 points):
The materials that go into the construction of our precast concrete products are sourced within a 500 mile radius of our plant.
4) Durable building credit, (One point):
Precast concrete has exceptional durability and moreo than meets this requirement.
