Sustainable Ceilings and LEED

Environmental characteristics can be critical to the design of a building seeking to comply with the U.S. Green Building Council's (www.usgbc.org) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. LEED provides a framework for achieving sustainability. The program is based upon a checklist of criteria that, if met, earn credits toward LEED certification of the project as a sustainable building.

Over a dozen LEED prerequisites and credits can be impacted by a building's ceilings.

Ceiling systems can contribute directly towards LEED credits. This analysis is based upon LEED for New Construction, Version 2.2.

Recycled Material Content (LEED Credit MR-4): Ceilings are now manufactured with a wide range of recycled materials, including metal, paper, glass, and slag. Of these, metal ceilings can have the greatest recycled content; some ceilings are now produced with up to up to 85 percent recycled aluminum, including as much as 75 percent post-consumer recycled content primarily from beverage containers. Steel used in ceiling suspension systems can have between 25 percent and 30 percent recycled material content.

Photo:Ceilings Plus About 18 beverage cans are recycled per square foot of aluminum ceiling. Used cans and other scrap are taken to local reclamation plants where they are shredded, melted, formed into ingots, and rolled into sheets. Since a relatively small amount of energy is necessary to melt and reuse aluminum, aluminum ceilings have only low entrained energy content.

There are ready markets for scrap aluminum, and the material can be recycled repeatedly without degradation of its metallurgical properties. Recycled aluminum requires only five percent of the energy needed to make aluminum from bauxite ore. Recycling is a relatively clean process that produces little pollution other that that associated with the energy used to melt and process the metal.

Perforated ceilings can be made with 85 to 98 percent recycled aluminum.

Local/Regional Materials (LEED Credit MR-5): Using materials produced near the location of a project supports the region's economy, stimulates regionally-responsive architecture, and reduces the energy consumed in transport. Ceilings can help a building qualify for this credit if raw materials are extracted or the place of final manufacturing is within 500 miles of the project. Aluminum ceilings can be especially attractive with regards to local extraction of materials. This is because aluminum made from locally collected beverage containers can be converted back to sheet material at small, often local, reclaimers.

Photo: Timothy Hursley Perforated ceilings made with rapidly renewable bamboo and recycled aluminum helped earn a LEED Silver Rating for the recently completed Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. Designed by Polshek Partnership, bamboo in the 9,000 sq. ft. ceiling was carbonized by heat-treating until it obtained the rich amber color desired by the architect. The bamboo was laminated to recycled aluminum and custom perforated to provide the desired appearance and a high noise reduction coefficient. And because the panels are so lightweight, they could be provided in sizes up to twelve feet long by four feet wide to fit the large scale of the Library's exhibit halls.

Rapidly Renewable Materials (LEED Credit MR-6): Bamboo can grow to harvestable size in as little as three years, regenerates without replanting, and requires minimal fertilization or pesticides. As an ecologically-friendly material, bamboo enjoys growing acceptance as an architectural finish and an alternative to wood in products such as flooring. Recently, bamboo has been introduced as a finish for ceiling panels. Veneers of bamboo are laminated to recycled aluminum cores in the same way described above for wood panels.