USGBC offers new LEED pilot credit: Building Material Human Hazard and Exposure Assessment

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced a new LEED pilot credit: Building Material Human Hazard & Exposure Assessment.

The credit aims to encourage building teams and manufacturers to assess human health-related exposure scenarios for products during installation and beyond.

“We have a focus on transparency and optimization so specifiers can know what they are using and can reward innovation,” said Scot Horst, chief product officer, USGBC. “But understanding how a material impacts human health requires a full understanding of hazard and exposure. The new pilot credit is a first step toward evaluating exposure by encouraging product inventories in order to prioritize decision making.”  

The pilot credit is intended to reward manufacturers who perform hazard and exposure assessments designed to help minimize human health impacts during installation and use of their products. By requiring exposure to be considered during product development, make linkages can be made between the product’s ingredient inventory and hazard assessment required by the existing Materials Ingredients credit and performance testing required by LEED’s Low Emitting Materials credits.