What is LEED? It is building certification system that is recognized internationally. It provides third-party verification that a building or community is trying to use environmentally friendly methods and procedures. This rating system was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to provide a measurable way for all types of buildings, including commercial and residential to be “green”.

Concrete has been qualifying as a sustainable building material for years when following the USGBC LEED green building qualifications, but many people don't think of decorative concrete as being "green". As the demand for green building products increased, the decorative concrete industry has stepped up and developed eco-friendly products to meet these needs.

Category: Sustainable Sites

This is intended to reduce the impact of construction on the surrounding exterior environments, communities and eco-system. This can be done by using any combination of the following strategies for 50% of the site hardscape (including roads, sidewalks, courtyards and parking lots):  Provide shade from the existing tree canopy or within 5 years of landscape installation. Landscaping (trees) must be in place at the time of occupancy. Provide shade from structures covered by solar panels that produce energy used to offset some nonrenewable resource use.  Provide shade from architectural devices or structures that have a solar reflectance index2 (SRI) of at least 29. Use hardscape materials with an SRI of at least 29.  Use an open-grid pavement system (at least 50% previous).

Decorative concrete can qualify for this credit by using light shades or light-colored microtoppings or overlays to meet the SRI of 29 or greater to reduce heat islands to minimize impact on the surrounding microclimates and habitats. You can also use combination of trees or manmade shade, previous surfaces or reflective hardscape surfaces for at least 50% of the hardscape surfaces on the project.

The intent is to limit disruption of natural hydrology by reducing impervious cover, increasing on-site infiltration, reducing or eliminating pollution from storm water runoff and eliminating contaminants.

Storm water can be directed by previous concrete to reduce the impact on the environment without the use of large artificial collection areas. The use of color to beautify the concrete helps reduce the artificial look of the concrete surface.

Category: Indoor Environmental Quality

The intent is to reduce the quantity of indoor air contaminants that are odorous, irritating and/or harmful to the comfort and well-being of installers and occupants. All adhesives and sealants used on the interior of the building (i.e., inside of the weatherproofing system and applied on-site) must comply with the following requirements as applicable to the project scope.

The decorative concrete industry has developed eco-friendly products that meet VOC’s requirements. To receive LEED points, use products with low or zero VOC’s that are either solvent- or water-based LEED-compliant products. Example: Sealants must not exceed 250 g/l of VOC.

The intent is to reduce the quantity of indoor air contaminants that are odorous, irritating and/or harmful to the comfort and well-being of installers and occupants. This specifically refers to flooring such as carpet, VCT, etc and concrete stains. It requires that concrete stain and sealer systems meet low-VOC requirements.

Since decorative concrete floors do not require additional floor covering, it functions as the floor surface therefore greatly reduces material consumption, transportation costs and flooring installation time and surface. Use environmentally friendly dyes, tints and sealers including acid stains, concrete dyes, water-based tints, acrylic stains, tinted sealer systems that are zero-VOC or VOC compliant that meet LEED requirements to earn LEED points in this category.

Category: Materials & Resources

• Materials & Resources: (Credit 1.1 Building Reuse – Maintain 75% of Existing Wall, Floors & Roof and Credit 1.2: Building Reuse – Maintain 95% of Existing Walls, Floors and Roof)

The intent is to reuse building materials and products to reduce demand for virgin materials and reduce waste, thereby lessening the impact associated with the extraction and processing of virgin resources. It requires a certain percent of materials used to be salvaged, refurbished or reused materials.

Renovating existing concrete floors or walls can greatly reduce costs.  Decorative concrete finishes such as stains and sealer systems, micortoppings and overlays to refurbish existing damaged concrete floors, stampable overlays, and vertical stampable wall overlays qualify for this credit.

The intent is to increase demand for building products that incorporate recycled content materials, thereby reducing impacts resulting from extraction and processing of virgin materials. Products that are considered pre-consumer use recycled content such as fly ash, silica fume and slag cement as supplementary cementitious materials. Post-consumer qualifications are the use of recycled concrete or slag instead of extracted aggregates.

This is credit is based on the percent of recycled materials used either/or post-consumer or pre-consumer. The Concrete Network explains it this way, "Tip: When using integral color with concrete containing supplementary cementitious materials, such as fly ash, silica fume and slag, dose the color based on the weight of the portland cement plus the weight of the supplementary cementitious materials."

The intent is to increase demand for building products that are manufactured locally, thereby reducing the environmental impacts resulting from their transportation and supporting the local economy.* Purchasing materials locally (with in a 50 mile radius) such as densifiers, concrete mix, etc can also add credit points for green building.

Don’t overlook the environmental impact of using decorative concrete for your next project. It can make both a direct or indirect impact on LEED certification. This allows you to gain even more points by adding decorative elements to a concrete surface as well as making it look artistic and environmentally pleasing.

* U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Rating System guide from www.usgbc.org website.