United States Aluminum: Green Building/LEED

Green Building/LEED

The United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®)
program sets a definitive standard for what constitutes a ‘Green Building’. The program is based on nationally
accepted energy and environmental standards and principles that strike a balance between known effective
practices and emerging technologies. The U.S. Green Building Council is the governing body for LEED and is
the nation’s foremost coalition of leaders from across the building industry working to promote buildings that
are socially and environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work.

The United States Aluminum product line can help new commercial construction & major renovation projects
(LEED-NC), existing building operations (LEED-EB), commercial interiors projects (LEED-CI) and core & shell
projects (LEED-CS) attain points towards one of the four levels of LEED certification: basic, silver, gold and
platinum. The level achieved is based on the total number out of 100 possible points across six categories.
As the green building movement has grown in the United States, so to has it grown in a host of other countries
including Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom. The Canadian Green Building Council’s (CaGBC) version of
the LEED program, version 1.0, is a close derivative of USGBC’s version 2.2 with the main exception being
the addition of an eighth Materials & Resources: Durable Building credit.

One LEED credit commonly sought is MR Credit 5: Regional Materials. The intent of this credit is to
increase demand for building materials and products that are extracted and manufactured within the region,
thereby supporting the use of indigenous resources and reducing the environmental impacts resulting from
transportation. Due to the geographic diversity of bauxite sources, Australia, Brazil, Jamaica, Russia and
the United States, and the stream of recycled aluminum content in billet, it is difficult to determine a specific
regional source to qualify for this credit.

This section shows the LEED credits that are influenced by architectural aluminum glazed products. Each
credit is labeled as active or passive; active credits are those that involve product specific performance
requirements (i.e. recycled content of product or VOC performance), and passive credits are dependant upon
design specific conditions (i.e. designer adding glazing for daylighting).

LEED NC 2009

EA Credit 1 – Optimize Energy Performance (passive)
United States Aluminum offers many thermally insulated systems that provide excellent energy
performance.

MR Credit 4 – Recycled Content (active)
United States Aluminum produces extrusions manufactured using billet composed of 50% post-industrial
recycled aluminum and 25% post-consumer recycled aluminum.

MR Credit 8 (CaGBC only) – Durable Building (active)
The inherent structural properties of our architectural aluminum products feature low lifetime
maintenance and a structural longevity that contributes to the attainment of this credit.

IEQ Credit 2 – Increased Ventilation (passive)
Our products can be used as part of a comprehensive plan to provide additional outdoor air ventilation
to improve indoor air quality for improved occupant comfort, well-being and productivity.

IEQ Credit 4.2 – Low Emitting Materials, Paints & Coatings (active)
United States Aluminum uses Fluropon, Fluropon Classic II and anodized coatings that meet or exceed
AAMA 2005.

IEQ Credit 6.1 – Controllability of Systems, Lighting (passive)
IEQ Credit 6.2 – Controllability of Systems, Thermal Comfort (passive)
United States Aluminum provides systems that offer a greater level of thermal, ventilation and lighting
control with features like operable windows that meet the requirements of ASHRAE 62.1-2004
paragraph 5.1 Natural Ventilation.

IEQ Credit 7.1 – Thermal Comfort, Design (passive)
United States Aluminum produces building envelope systems that meet the requirements of
ASHRAE Standard 55-2004, Thermal Comfort Conditions for Human Occupancy.

IEQ Credit 8.1 – Daylight & Views, Daylight 75% of Spaces (passive)
IEQ Credit 8.2 – Daylight & Views, Daylight 90% of Spaces (passive)
United States Aluminum manufactures systems that can be configured to allow an amount of Daylight
and View that exceeds LEED requirements.