Material PCRs and (selected) EPDs

Below is a compilation of the various available Product Category Rules (PCRs) and selected Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for structural products in the Washington market.

As the market is changing rapidly, this list may not include all available EPDs or the latest versions of PCRs. Know of something that's not on the list? Let us know and we'll try to keep this list up-to-date.

PCRs

Concrete
Carbon Leadership Forum

Steel
SCS Global

Masonry
Brick under development by ASTM
CMU by ASTM

Wood
FPInnovations

EPDs

Concrete
NRMCA's EPD database, including industry averages and a list of product-specific EPDs (including EPDS for CalPortland and Cadman Seattle plants)
NPCA's EPDs for precast concrete
Stoneway's on-demand EPDs

Steel
AISC Hot-rolled steel
AISC Plate
CMC Rebar
ClarkDietrich Cold-Formed Studs
Overall list of Steel Industry Averages

Masonry


Wood
AWC Industry EPDs
EPDs by FPInnovations

Other
Overall list of PCRs and EPDs from ASTM

Introduction to LEED v4

Cascadia and LMN are hosting an Introduction to LEED v4 on May 4. From Cascadia:

On October 31st of this year, registration for LEED v2009 will be officially closed, and less than 5 years from that, on June 30th, 2021 -- known as the Sunset of LEED v3 -- no project will be receiving certification under v2009.

LEED v4 represents the future of green building. However, LEED v4 is quite different from the previous version in many ways --  different rating system, redefined prerequisites and credit requirements, a heavier focus on materials, as well as an expansion to cover more building types. All with a greater aspiration to encourage projects to do more good.

Knowing the upcoming change can vastly impact our industry and leave you with questions, Seattle Collaborative is hosting a presentation to introduce the upcoming LEED V4 for you, so reserve your ticket and come learn the vital basics about LEED V4. The presentation is approved for 1 hour of AIA Continuing Education credit and 1 hour of USGBC Continuing Education credit.

 

Click here for tickets.

Google helps launch Quartz Project

The Quartz Project is an online database of open source environmental product data. While not a full EPD, this gives some ballpark numbers and overall impacts. For example, rebar.

See the full database at: http://quartzproject.org/q

November updates

November's committee meeting included a presentation by Erica Fischer on the connection between fire engineering (particularly for steel structures) and sustainability. Performance-based fire design is rare in the US but common in other parts of the world. Spray-on fireproofing has a high cement content that results in large amounts of embodied carbon emissions.

Other news items this month:

King County adopts new climate plan, including 25% building energy use reduction by 2030.
151-page Strategic Climate Action Plan (SCAP)

New resilient design pilot credits announced for LEED v4:
http://www.resilientdesign.org/leed-pilot-credits-on-resilient-design-adopted/

CLT post at the Urbanist

The Urbanist has a short article on cross laminated timber by Susan Jones, FAIA. The article contains some background on the blue beetle effect in Canadian forests as well as an update on domestic production of CLT.

See more at:


http://www.theurbanist.org/2015/10/15/clt-whats-all-the-excitement-about/

U.S. Tall Wood Building Prize Competition Names Winning Designs

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced the award of funding to support development of two tall wood buildings in the U.S. Two teams will split $3 million in funding to support the research and development of their proposed projects.  The contest required buildings at least 80 feet tall using mass-timber (such as cross laminated timber) and other engineered-wood.

One winner is 475 W. 18th, a 10-story residential high-rise in New York. 
Architect: SHoP Architects,
Consultants: Arup, Icor Consulting Engineers, Atelier Ten
Developer: Spiritos Properties

The other winner is Framwork, a 12-story multi-use building in Portland Oregon's Pearl District
(residential, office, commercial, and community spaces)
Architect:  LEVER Architecture
Consultants: KPFF
Developer: Project

More on the projects:
http://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/us-tall-wood-building-prize-competition-names-winning-designs_o
USDA Press Release
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2015%2F09%2F0259.xml

UW Disaster Resilience Series

The University of Washington is hosting a series of lectures on disaster resilience. The speakers are multi-disciplinary and there is a multi-hazard lists of topics to be covered. See more and reserve a place for the public lectures at http://www.washington.edu/alumni/hazards/