LEED®, which is short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a voluntary, consensus-based national point rating system, which was established in March 2000 for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. Building industry leaders formed the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) to oversee the LEED program and to “promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to work. It is leading a new consensus for producing a new generation of buildings that deliver performance both inside and out.”
 

LEED-EB and LEED-NC provide a point rating system for maintenance standards on existing buildings (EB) and for new construction (NC) to achieve quantified energy use reduction. The goal is to reduce Heat Island Effect, the phenomena of overheating caused by cities due to their clustered buildings’ absorbsion and reradiation of the sun’s thermal energy as contrasted to open, undeveloped terrain. Reflectance and emittance standards can be met by utilizing the correct solar-reflective/ thermally emissive top coats. Buildings that achieve this earn 1 credit point towards their “LEED Certification” under LEED Credit 7.2 for roofs. Additionally, LEED Credit 7.1, specifies for the “non-roof surfaces”(exterior walls) that qualified solar-reflective coatings can also achieve 1 credit point.
 

The Ultimate Coatings Company’s ECO-THERM® Elastomeric, when applied to flat/ low slope roofs, as well as walls, and our THERMO-SEAL® when correctly applied to walls, contributes to the capability to be LEED compliant by reducing energy consumption for air-conditioning. As cool roof coatings, they can match or exceed the .65 initial solar reflectance and .90 emissivity standards required under LEED depending upon the color chosen. In their cool wall coating versions, both of these products are available in colors that exceed the .30 solar reflectance LEED requirement and qualify for 1 LEED Credit point.

ECO-THERM® Elastomeric in our colors EcoWhite, Greywynd and Castlemaine (white, gray, beige) all meet the LEED criteria. When applied as cool roof coatings, on existing buildings and new construction, they qualify for 1 LEED Credit point.

The Ultimate Coatings Company is a new member of the USGBC. For information on our solar-reflective coatings, please see: www.ultimatecoatings.net.
 

The LEED standard has been adopted nationwide by federal agencies, state and local governments, and interested private companies as the guideline for sustainable building. For more information, visit www.usgbc.org/LEED
 

Copyright 2008 (Rev.1/15/08), The Ultimate Coatings Company. All rights reserved.  www.ultimatecoatings.net