Rating System

LEED BD+C: Homes

Rating System Version

v3 - LEED 2008

Inquiry

The building material "adobe" should qualify as an Environmentally Preferable Product under LEED H MR 2.2 (a) in the Exterior Wall, Framing /Wall Structure Component and the Interior Wall, Framing component. This point seems designed to award points for materials which come from particularly sustainable sources. As examples the current Rating Guide lists materials with a high recycled content, concrete with greater than 30% fly ash or slag, or in the case of wood frame walls FSC certified, reclaimed or (only in the exterior walls) finger jointed studs. In other components the points are awarded for bamboo or cork flooring and for sealed concrete flooring. In all of these cases the materials selected seem to have been listed because of high recycled content, or because of especially renewable origins for the materials involved.\n\n Adobe is made of dirt with a little water and, on occasion, a bit of straw. These are ultra-renewable resources, and available locally almost everywhere in the world. The resultant building product has a near-zero carbon footprint (where it is produced) and consists almost entirely of the most available renewable resource in the world, common dirt. This seems to be the exact kind of material this category was intended to recognize.