Taking the LEED

In this issue, we hear from several construction and demolition (C&D) recyclers about the importance of certification through the Recycling Certification Institute (RCI) and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

During the interview for our cover story, "Making it work," GreenWay Recycling founder Terrell Garrett emphasizes his belief that the more recycling facilities that become RCI-certified, the better for the industry as a whole.

At the time we spoke, GreenWay was the only RCI-certified facility in Oregon. The certification allows the company to provide recovery rates for projects to obtain LEED gold and platinum ratings.

“Having these facilities certified is for the betterment of the industry,” Garrett says. “It provides transparency in recovery rates and brings the truth forward.”

In the article "Proven reputation," van Der Linde Recycling CEO Andrea Johnson walks fellow C&D recyclers through the long—but worthwhile, she insists—process of becoming an RCI-certified facility. At the start of the process, she says, her team didn’t realize that not having a way to verify recycling rates affected not only the van der Linde facility but also the contractors and builders that benefit when a recycling facility gets certified.

Johnson praises the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for creating a standard for builders that want to be recognized as leaders in energy and environmental design and rewards them for recycling construction debris and using recycled-content products. Likewise, she says, in setting and maintaining a standard for the recycling industry with the establishment of RCI, the Construction & Demolition Recycling Association (CDRA) found a way to provide confidence to customers and credibility to recyclers.

At the same time, she posits, CDRA has helped create a new standard for the C&D recycling industry, one that has been fully embraced by USGBC and the LEED program as some states such as California have begun to require C&D processing facilities to be certified.

All this LEED talk is timely—USBGC recently released LEED v5, the newest version of its comprehensive framework for creating sustainable, efficient and resilient build environments, for review.

The newest version of LEED focuses on decarbonization across all areas, human-centric design and strategies that promote ecological conservation and restoration. USGBC plans to continue to develop LEED v5 over the coming year, with the final version scheduled to be released in early 2025. Read more about LEED v5 in this month's Industry News column.