Under LEED v4.1, building teams can earn up to 2 points for the MR Credit: EPDs. To earn these points, teams must achieve one or more of the following options:

• Option 1: Environmental Product Declaration (1 point)
• Option 2: Embodied Carbon/LCA Optimization (1 point)

Option 1 requires that a project include at least 20 different products from at least five different manufacturers that meet certain disclosure criteria. Because ClarkDietrich’s LEC EPD is a product-specific Type III EPD, its LEC steel products count as 1.5 products toward the required 20 for Option 1. 

Option 2 requires that projects include at least five products from at least three manufacturers that have a compliant embodied carbon optimization report. With its new EPD Optimization Report, ClarkDietrich LEC steel products now count as 1.5 products toward the required five for Option 2. While Option 2 requires fewer products than Option 1, there are only a handful of products on the market that meet the criteria for Option 2. 

“This is a major step forward in our commitment to sustainability,” Shoemaker said. “We’re proud to help our customers succeed and make a real difference in the built environment.”

The EPD Optimization Report is an independent-party–verified comparative analysis on ClarkDietrich’s LEC steel framing systems. The assessment provides a Cradle-to-Gate comparison of the company’s LEC EPD against its standard EPD as a baseline. The report concludes that ClarkDietrich LEC cold-formed steel framing systems offer more than a 10% reduction in global warming potential (in fact, it shows a 30.3% reduction in GWP).

To learn more about ClarkDietrich’s commitment to sustainability, visit clarkdietrich.com/sustainability.