How to Earn LEED Materials & Resources Points for Green Buildings

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an ecology-oriented building certification program run under the auspices of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)

When LEED v4 was launched in 2013, many changes came along with it. One of the major adjustments, in our opinion, has to do with an overhaul of the LEED Materials & Resources credits.

LEED v3 called on project crews to source building products based on a percentage of the total cost of materials that made up the LEED building project. It focused exclusively on single product attributes (such as recycled content) and materials costs.

LEED v4 instead places urgency on the importance of product lifecycle and transparency of product ingredients. LEED Materials & Resources credits now encourage project teams to invest in products and materials that disclose lifecycle information, track environmental impacts of products and reveal the chemical ingredients used in the product. Not only does this switch to the LEED Materials & Resources credits encourage project teams to spend time seeking out environmentally responsible products, but it also benefit manufacturers that produce products with improved (and verified) lifecycle impacts.

 

How to Earn LEED Materials & Resources Points

To gain points in the LEED Materials & Resources category, project teams will need to source 20 qualifying products sourced from five different qualifying manufacturers. These manufacturers, and the products they produce, that have environmental product declarations (EPDs) and either health product declarations (HPDs) or material health assessments (MHAs) can contribute to LEED points.

Even if you’re not currently pursuing a LEED project, paying attention to the building products you use – including cable – offers benefits. Products that can offer LEED Materials & Resources credits ensure that:

  • Products and materials have known hazards revealed
  • Products and materials have undergone processes to document their lifecycle and environmental impacts

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4 Ways to Reinforce Your Network with Digital Infrastructure

We have proclaimed 2017 to be “the year of the digital building.” A digital building operates its network to connect previously standalone building systems together using one common, connected digital infrastructure. Through Internet protocol (IP), these devices can send and receive data via the network.

Can we support this ubiquitous LAN (a phrase we coined in 2016 to describe bringing traditionally separate, standalone building systems together under one network) with our digital infrastructure? We’ve mentioned before that your digital infrastructure will make or break your network. The best, most high-performing building systems designed to connect via IP and transmit/receive data won’t do you any good if your digital infrastructure can not provide reliable uptime and fast speeds for data sharing and consumption.

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The Advantages of High-Quality, Low-Loss Fiber Connectivity

Data centers and LANs are migrating effortlessly from 10G to 40G and 100G Ethernet to provide scalability and accommodate more bandwidth as future applications become reality; meanwhile, the imminent deployment requirements of next-generation 200G and 400G Ethernet speeds are already in range, mainly driven by cloud data centers and the wireless 5G ecosystem.

In previous blogs, we’ve discussed the differences between singlemode and multimode transceivers, and the differences between “fiber link budget” and “channel insertion loss” as they relate to this migration. When it comes to actual deployment, however, it’s crucial to note that a high-quality, low-loss fiber solution makes all the difference when it comes to reducing risk, avoiding performance errors and minimizing total cost of ownership.

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Understanding Alien Crosstalk

The industry has been forecasting the expansion of 10GBASE-T for years, and has finally occurred. More networks are planning 10G migrations. Why? Due to demand from more advanced devices, users and applications.

New concerns come into play with this Ethernet standard. Alien crosstalk – the interference caused by wire pairs in one cable inducing noise into other wire pairs in adjacent cables – is the transmission parameter that has remarkable impact on 10GBASE-T performance.

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Understanding TSN? Understand Its Role in Future Ethernet Networks

Following new trends and technologies, you’ve possibly been hearing a lot about time sensitive networking (TSN). It’s a relatively new technology, have you been wondering, “what is TSN?” and “why does it concern my company?”

As you may have read in this previous post about TSN, this new technology transforms standard Ethernet from an “I’ll get it there as soon as I can” communications technology to one that provides timing assurance for mission-critical applications. Now, you can achieve an entirely new level of determinism in IEEE 802.1 and IEEE 802.3 Ethernet networks.

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Minimize Complexity with Port Monitoring: A substitute to Port Replication

IT managers frequently face new challenges as they have no choice but to migrate to next-generation, faster networking infrastructure.

Managing fiber infrastructure has become a mundane undertaking as fiber counts increase. Connectivity agility needs to be brought about from Day One to support future network reconfiguration and upgrade cycles.

 

What is Port Replication?

In many mission-critical applications, a backup link is required in addition to the primary link to ensure high service availability.

Port replication on active networking gear can provide highly reliable networking service that allows fast troubleshooting for connection issues and minimizes system downtime. In this scenario, the system has 100% redundancy; server and switch port usage is reduced to 50%. Additional cable and floor space can add to overall system costs.

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Bending Loss – The Risks of Reusing Installed Fiber Cable

Due to its ultra-high data transmission capacity, ultra-low loss and installation flexibility, glass optical fiber is the most engery-efficient data transmission media available today. Optical fiber cables have been distributed worldwide to connect people and “things” together.

Stated by CRU’s Optical Fibre and Cable Monitor, last year, the global optical cable demand reached 318 million kilometers in the first three quarters of 2016.

As we mentioned in a previous blog, two types of optical fiber are available for different network environments and link distances:

  • Multimode fiber (MMF) for short-reach links up to a few hundred meters, typically used in data centers environments
  • Singlemode fiber (SMF) for long-reach links, such as in LANs, access networks, metro/transport networks and hyperscale data centers

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Cable Plugs Matter More than One Thinks

The wireless access points, cameras and alternative devices being mounted on our ceilings or high up on walls are connecting to our networks – but not all use standard faceplate, jack and patch-cord configurations to do so. Instead, a direct-attachment system is being used, which terminates horizontal cable with a field cable plug that plugs directly into devices.

There are two cable plug options for Category 5e, Category 6 and Category 6A twisted-pair cabling:

  1. Crimp-on plug types
  2. PCB plug types

Crimp-on plug types require preciseness; cabling wires, contacts and plug components must correspond correctly to achieve appropriate electrical performance. A crimp-on plug must be designed for each cable’s geometric differences. A PCB cable plug, for that matter, does not take cabling configuration into account. Installing a PCB cable plug is just like putting on a jack: You terminate the cable onto IDCs and place the plug housing on top. This disassociates the characteristics of the cable and plug when connecting them.

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TIA acknowledges Direct-Connect Termination Method

The industry acquired some great news: The TIA TR-42.7 subcommittee consented to incorporate modular plug terminated links (also known as “direct connect”) in a TIA-568.2-D normative annex. The annex provides assistance to IT professionals to ensure a proper direct-connect cabling arrangement. Many Belden staff are closely involved with the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), holding many leadership positions within the organization. We are constantly looking out for the ICT industry, searching for ways to boost existing technology and streamline installation – which is why we presented the issue to TIA and lead the effort to have the direct-connect termination method fully supported.

What does this mean? RJ45 modular plugs can be terminated straight onto horizontal cabling and measured in the field. It allows an assortment of devices, such as wireless access points, surveillance cameras and HDBaseT monitors, to be plugged without the need for an outlet and a patch cord.

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Additional Wireless Access Points: What It Means for Networks

Ordinarily users will bring up to three devices with them – a smartphone, tablet and laptop, for instance – that will all connect to your network the minute you walks through your doors. (The average U.S. consumer now has 3.64 devices.) These devices are continuously downloading updates, receiving emails and synching to cloud-based storage. According to Dell’Oro, the number of wireless LAN active users is currently outpacing wired LAN users.

This fact alone proves the point that bandwidth capacity requirements are escalating– and we have not touched on the devices that are connecting to enterprise networks as a result of Internet of Things (IoT). VoIP phones, IP surveillance cameras, lighting systems and building controls are all connecting to networks to transfer data, receive data and adjust performance in real time.

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