Towards greener buildings

Green buildings have been designed and constructed for over three decades but initiatives started in recent years have a broader scope and produce greater benefit in institutional and commercial buildings in particular: minimized environmental impact (resource consumption and pollution), reduced long-term building operations and maintenance costs and improved well-being and productivity of occupants.

Green building initiatives are revolutionizing the building industry in the US and Canada with large government agencies and private companies making commitments to build their new facilities to green building standards.

ASHRAE released standard 90.1-1999 Energy Standard for Buildings which rapidly became a benchmark for energy efficiency in commercial buildings and was adopted into the Building Code of many States but it is the LEED™ initiative developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) which stands out as the prevailing building rating system in North America.

The LEED™ initiative (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) provides a framework for assessing building performance and covers all aspects of green building design and construction including sustainable site selection and development, water efficiency, energy efficiency, material selection and recycling and indoor environmental quality.

NEOPERL^® plumbing components (or any other plumbing or building products) cannot receive "certification" by LEED™ or by the USGBC or bear the LEED™ logo, even if their use can immediately contribute to water and energy savings because only buildings are certified by the USGBC (or CaGBC in Canada).

NEOPERL^® products however, used in OEM faucet and shower products or installed as retrofit devices can help plumbing engineers, building designers or operators earn one or two LEED points in the category Materials and Resources, Resource Reuse (Credit type 3) for a 20% or 30% reduction of water use beyond the level set for plumbing fixtures by the Energy Policy Act of 1992:

* flow rates already available in the NEOPERL^® range of flow regulators or faucet aerators

LEED is a registered trademark of the US Green Building Council. For more information on green building initiatives in North America visit www.usgbc.org or www.cagbc.ca For more details on ASHRAE standards please visit www.ashrae.org.