In today’s building construction and design environments, sustainability and renewability are hot topics. Sustainable practices are crucial for fostering environmentally responsible and efficient buildings worldwide. Stainless Structurals can help this cause by offering sustainable products that meet LEED criteria.
LEED Statements and Credits
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a widely recognized and respected green building certification program. This program was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. With the program, the council can issue both LEED statements and credits.
LEED statements refer to the specific sustainable features and practices employed during the design, construction, and operation of the building. LEED statements can be found in the documentation that is used for the building’s compliance with various regulations, including sustainability criteria. This sustainable criteria is organized into various categories, known as LEED credits. Each of these credits focuses on a certain aspect of sustainability. These include energy efficiency, water conservation, air quality (indoor), material choice, site sustainability and many others.
LEED Certification
A building project must earn a specific number of LEED points to achieve LEED certification. These points are accumulated based on a project’s sustainable design features and construction concepts. The more points a project earns, the higher level of LEED certification can be achieved. The certification rating starts at “Certified” and goes up to “Platinum”.
By using stainless steel, specifically laser welded structural stainless steel profiles, one can achieve points in two of the main LEED certification categories. These include:
- Sustainable Materials: Over 90% of the construction materials are regionally sourced and contain recycled content to minimalize environmental impact.
- Energy Efficiency: The building has energy efficient windows or larger windows for more natural light and reduced energy consumption.
Stainless Structurals’ Commitment to Sustainability
Stainless Structurals is committed to reducing our environmental impact and to promoting sustainability. Not only do we source our raw material from sustainable suppliers, but we are implementing practices in production to reduce waste and conserve energy and resources. One example of our commitment is our scrap recycling. Just in the past year, we have recycled over 500,000 pounds of stainless and carbon steel.
Our raw material plates and sheets used in the production of our profiles are made with 90% recycled material. Of this 90%, 80% is from post-consumer recycled content. Stainless steel is also 100% recyclable. All of these factors play a major role in sustainability and in helping our customers achieve LEED credits. LEED Documents are available to download from the Resources page on our website. Please contact our team to day for more information.
