LEED Certification

The U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification is a voluntary, continuously evolving national standard for developing high performance sustainable buildings and sites. It is possible to accumulate points toward various LEED credits by incorporating ScourStop’s vegetated solution into your project design instead of hard armor.

Note:  LEED provides guidelines for choosing products, but does not certify products themselves. 

The LEED Rating System is comprised of five environmental categories. Erosion and sediment control is generally addressed under the category Sustainable Sites in LEED’s Checklist for New Construction and Major Renovations. With ScourStop, the applicable credits for consideration include:

 

Intent:  To conserve existing natural areas and restore damaged areas to provide habitat and promote biodiversity.

Rationale:  Vegetated solutions such as ScourStop inherently conserve and restore natural habitats by replacing concrete, rock rip rap, or other non-vegetated practices.

 

Intent: To promote biodiversity by providing a high ratio of open space to development footprint.                                         

Rationale:  Vegetated storm water conveyances (enabled by ScourStop Transition Mats) filter pollutants and recharge groundwater; as well as provide natural, aesthetic landscapes, including support of bio-retention areas.  ScourStop Transition Mats can be effectively used to stabilize steeper slopes, allowing expanded building location options and enabling a smaller building footprint design to minimize site disruption.

 

Intent: To limit disruption of natural hydrology by reducing impervious cover, increasing on-site infiltration, reducing or eliminating pollution from stormwater runoff and eliminating contaminants.

Rationale: Green infrastructure such as ScourStop filters sediment from runoff and promotes groundwater recharge. Transition Mats replace hard armor, like rock rip rap or broken concrete (impervious covers). ScourStop Transition Mats are a permanent, vegetated, engineered post-construction storm water treatment practice requiring little, if any, maintenance.  Vegetated storm water conveyances (enabled by ScourStop Transition Mats) increase on-site infiltration, filter pollutants and recharge groundwater; as well as provide natural, aesthetic landscapes, including support of bio-retention areas.

Landmark Earth Solutions erosion control products enable the integration of constructed wetlands, vegetated filter strips, open channels, bio-retention cells, or other natural systems to treat storm water runoff into a site’s overall design.

 

Intent: To limit disruption and pollution of natural water flows by managing stormwater runoff.

Rationale: Vegetated storm water conveyances enable temporary site detention of storm water, as well as wider channels to carry storm water slower, enabling ground water infiltration and pollutant removal, while maintaining historical discharges.  Transition mats support the integration of constructed wetlands, vegetated filter strips, open channels, bio-retention cells, or other natural systems to treat storm water runoff into a site’s overall design.

 

Full details on the 2009 version of LEED can be accessed here.