By James Hill, LEED-AP

Are you getting all the points possible in your LEED certified project? Did you know you can get a full point for using a roofing material having a Solar Reflective Index (SRI) of 29 or greater? You sure can. Add to this some credit towards the Material and Resources section of LEED for recycled content, both post and pre-consumer. You can even get some credit for roofing tiles that are regionally manufactured (within 500 miles). Concrete roofing tiles start to make a lot of sense when designing a project aimed at LEED certification.
By nature, concrete also has a high thermal mass thus rendering it useful as an insulator. I remember as a kid we had a concrete block wall at the rear of our property. In the summer, we would take cover behind the wall on the east side as it was cool to the touch. The west facing wall was scorching hot and we couldn’t take the heat for long. It makes sense now, that the flow of conductive heat (flux) through the wall was slowed due to the thickness (mass) of the wall. This concept is also true of the roof, which benefits the home by saving energy.

Finally, recyclability is important when considering any green material. Concrete roofing tiles are made with both post and pre-consumer recycled content. Fly-ash and blast furnace slag are incorporated into the product during manufacture. Best of all however, is the fact that the product can be recycled again at the end of its useful life.

Concrete roofing tiles are the greenest roofing products available today. They offer benefits from energy savings to recyclability in addition to a significant amount of credit towards LEED certification for your next LEED project.