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Sustainability and green building solutions

With a high strength-to-weight ratio and its ease of construction, wood is the preferred choice in our environmental efforts to find green building solutions.

By making better use of every tree, RedBuilt produces cost-effective, engineered wood products that reduce environmental impact without sacrificing structural integrity.

Sustainability Certifications
& Transparency

Whether you’re looking for LEED® certification or you simply want to ensure sustainable forest practices, our RedBuilt Red-I™ Joists, RedLam™ LVL, and Open-Web trusses are available. RedBuilt also has various Environmental Product Declarations (EPD’s) and Health Product Declarations (HPD’s) for our Red-I™ Joists, RedLam™ LVL, and Open-Web trusses which are based on life cycle assessments and material ingredients for transparency and environmental assessment.

 

Attainable
Sustainability

Sustainable wood comes from properly managed forests with renewability rooted in properly managed landscapes through encouraging eco-systems, watersheds, wildlife and the trees themselves.

In this context, sustainability protects forests, offering future use for generations along with keeping global carbon emissions at bay.

But we take sustainability to another level. As we grow, our own buildings are becoming more and more sustainable as we actively pursue environmentally friendly warehouses, materials and more.

For the good of green

Common Questions

LEED points are awarded for an overall project, not for a specific product used. As such, the use of RedBuilt™ products may help in obtaining various LEED points depending on the projects material utilization and location. RedBuilt™ products may directly contribute to the following points:

LEED 2009

  • MR Credit 4: Recycled Content (1-2 points)
  • MR Credit 5: Regional Materials (1-2 points)
  • IEQ Credit 4.4: Low-Emitting Materials-Composite Wood and Agrifiber Products (1 point)
  • ID Credit 1: Innovation in Design (1-5pts for NC and CS, 1-4 points for Schools) – Also see Question #9.

LEED v4

  • MR – Building Product Disclosure and Optimization – Sourcing of Raw Materials – Option 2, Leadership Extraction Practices (1-2 points): This credit includes recycled content and a valuation factor for regional materials.
  • MR – Building Product Disclosure and Optimization – Option 1, Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) (1-2 points): Product-specific Type III EPD’s are available for both Red-ITM I-Joists and RedLamTMLVL. Also see Question #10.
  • MR – Building product disclosure and optimization – Material Ingredients – Option 1, Material Ingredient Reporting (1-2 points). Also see Question #12.
  • EQ – Low-Emitting Materials (1-3 points) – Also see Question #11.

RedBuilt™ will work to provide you claims for green attributes on request. We supply a letter specifically for your project that breaks down project cost to each material type, and includes needed claims and documentation for various applicable green building criteria. This letter may be written for your project at any of the following stages of the project:

  • During quoting phase to aide in your purchasing decisions
  • During installation phase to keep paperwork current with project status
  • On project completion for final green certification submittals

To request a letter for your project, consult your RedBuilt™ Technical Sales Representative. Contact your Rep here.

Yes. The steel components used in RedBuilt’s Open-Web trusses contain 25% post-consumer recycled content. Additionally, many RedBuilt™ projects include steel joist/beam hangers and other steel hardware that contain recycled content. RedBuilt™ passes on applicable recycled content claims from the hardware manufacturer when possible.

For LEED 2009, Regional Materials are defined by LEED as those that “have been extracted, harvested or recovered, as well as manufactured, within 500 miles of the project site.” For LEED v4, this has been reduced to 100 miles.

RedBuilt™ operates four manufacturing facilities in the following locations:

  • Stayton, OR – manufactures RedLam™ LVL and Red-I™ I-Joists
  • Hillsboro, OR – manufactures Open-Web Trusses
  • Chino, CA – manufactures Open-Web Trusses, provides Red-I™ I-joist cut packs
  • Delaware, OH – manufactures Open-Web Trusses, provides Red-I™ I-joist cut packs

Based on the strategic location of RedBuilt’s manufacturing facilities, some projects are located within a 100 to 500 mile radius of one of our facilities. However, in some cases the material is being harvested or extracted from geographic regions that are not proximally located to our manufacturing facilities.

RedBuilt™ may make regional materials claims on wood products from plants in Hillsboro and Stayton, OR only. Consult with your Technical Representative

RedBuilt™ may make regional materials claims on wood products from plants in Hillsboro and Stayton, OR only. Consult with your Technical Representative in advance if you wish to make regional materials claims on either Open-Web trusses from the Delaware, OH plant or glulam beams from one of RedBuilt’s third-party suppliers. Contact your rep here.

All of RedBuilt’s wood products come from renewable forest sources. Although engineered wood products have been founded on the concept that wood fibers must be used in an efficient and sustainable manner, the typical harvest cycle for forests is 30-40 years, which does not meet the criteria for “rapidly renewable” in many green building models.

No. All of RedBuilt’s products are urea-formaldehyde free. Material Safety Data Sheets are available on-line for Red-I™ I-Joists and RedLam™ LVL.

Beyond the sustainability benefits inherently found in wood-frame construction (visit our Green Building Resource Links located on our Green Building webpage for more industry information); there are compelling cases to be made for basing “Innovation in Design” credits on attributes of RedBuilt’s structural floor and roof systems. We invite you to consider the following potential innovative design attributes related to our products:

  • Wood Fiber Efficiency:
    Open-Web trusses and Red-I™ I-Joists can often carry similar loads over similar spans using only a fraction of the wood fiber when compared to sawn-lumber joists and beams. Fiber utilization from RedLam™ LVL and Red-I™ joist production is also higher than the recovery from traditional sawmills. We will work with our customers to “value-engineer” projects to ensure economical, fiber-efficient design.
  • Minimized Job-Site Waste:
    RedBuilt’s project cut-packs minimize jobsite waste. Cut-packs are made up of specific pieces that are labeled and cut-to-length at our manufacturing facilities in a manner that produces minimal jobsite end trim. Further waste reductions can be realized by taking advantage of our Open-Web trusses, which are built-to-length, and our Red-I™ I-Joists via our Precision-End-Trim (PET) services. An additional benefit of RedBuilt™ engineered wood products is there is no culling or sorting required, which reduces waste and time.
  • Carbon Footprint:
    Studies conducted by Athena and others have shown substantial carbon benefits with wood-frame construction. Using wood just makes good sense from a sustainability perspective. Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) models show wood-frame construction to be among the best of decisions for sustainable construction – far exceeding the long-term benefits of other building materials such as steel and concrete.

Yes. RedBuilt™ has two EPDs, one for Red-I™ I-Joists (SCS-EPD-04127) and for RedLam™ LVL (SCS-EPD-04128). They are product-specific Type III EPDs with third-party certification and external verification. They meet the requirements of LEED v4’s Building Product Disclosure and Optimization – Environmental Product Declarations – Option 1. EPDs are also recognized by the 2015 International Green Construction Code® (IgCC) and Green Globes® for New Construction.

Yes. According to LEED Interpretation ID#10466, Structural wood products are considered compliant if they are made with moisture resistant adhesives meeting ASTM 2559, have no surface treatments with added urea-formaldehyde resins or coatings, and if they are certified according to the industry standards listed in ID#10466. RedBuilt™ products are certified using the standards listed in ID#10466:

  • RedLam™ LVL: ASTM D 5456
  • Red-I™ I-Joists: ASTM D 5055
  • Adhesives: ASTM 2559

Yes. RedBuilt™ has three HPDs, one for Red-I™ I-Joists (SCS-HPD-05694), one for RedLam™LVL (SCS-HPD-05695), and one for RedBuilt™ Open-Web trusses (SCS-HPD-06402). They are based on a complete, basic method, with a product threshold reporting level of 1000 ppm (0.1%). They meet the requirements of LEED v4’s Building product disclosure and optimization – Material Ingredients – Option 1, Material Ingredient Reporting.

“The 951” in Downtown Boise

All wood. Mid-rise. Mixed use.

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The Red Badger Award

Persistence in problem solving. Never giving up. Doing whatever it takes to service the needs of the customer. These are “Badger-like” behaviors that exemplify RedBuilt™ associates who win the annual Red Badger award.

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Floor Vibration: An Everyday Thing

Our floor at home is designed for a live load of 40 pounds per square foot. I’ve never actually seen 40 pounds on each square foot of it, not all at once. None of us do. On my floor there’s just a scattering of chairs and tables and two useless cats.

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