Free EPDs, LCAs and LEED v4 Training Course

Please Note: This is a non-GBCI approved course. There is no LEED specific course ID for this course, this course may be reported for non-specific LEED hours under self-reporting. For more information please see this link.

Every year, multinationals in the building design and construction industry spend $15-20 billion on green building marketing. But since "green" doesn't mean just one thing, specifiers and buyers of sustainable building products are faced with a lot of confusion.

In LEED v4, the newest version of LEED, environmental product declarations (aka EPDs) and Life Cycle Analyses or Assessments (LCAs) are taking a larger role in the LEED building certification process. Indeed, in the new Materials and Resources and Environmental Quality categories, certain credits aim to answer specific product related questions:

1. LEED MRc3: Where did it come from?
2. LEED MRc2: How was it made?
3. LEED MRc4: What’s inside?
4. LEED EQc2: What is emitted?

An EPD is a third party examination of a product’s environmental impact. A LCA is an assessment of all the environmental impacts associated with every stage of a product’s from cradle to grave (i.e. sent to a landfill) or cradle to rebirth (where the product is broken down and reused or recycled to create new products).

EPD and LCA are two important acronyms because they are part of the product certification, and therefore validation, process. To complete a EPD, you must complete an LCA... LCAs are part of the EPD process.

While it might seem that the alphabet of EPDs and LCAs makes certification more complex, over time it should have the opposite effect, standardizing green building product identification and validation and making environmental claims easier to process.

This FREE online training course will help you:

1. Describe what a Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is and its purpose and benefits
2. Analyze the new requirements for LEED v4 compared to LEED 2009 and credits pertaining to EPDs
3. Describe what a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is and its role in the EPD process
4. Evaluate various EPDs, both industry wide and product specific

Specs

Course Name: Environmental Product Declarations, Life Cycle Analysis and LEED v4
Course Id: N/A
Category: Materials and Resources
CE Hours: 1
Level: 100
LEED Specific: No

About the Instructor:

David Pratt is a Professional Mechanical Engineer in the State of Texas, and also a Certified Energy Manager and LEED AP. He has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Michigan and a Master of Science in Engineering Management from the Air Force Institute of Technology. David has over 12 years of experience in Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Construction and Sustainable Design and is a frequent contributor to Green Buildings Online.