LEED GA Practice Questions: Materials and Resources

Materials and Resources is worth 11 of the 100 questions on the LEED Green Associate exam. It covers material health, the circular economy, life-cycle assessment, embodied carbon, product declarations and waste. These 12 practice questions test the concepts the exam returns to most often.

This is the domain where older study material is least reliable. Embodied carbon has moved from a specialist interest to a central concern in LEED v5, and guides written for earlier versions underweight it badly. If your notes barely mention embodied carbon, they are out of date.

What this domain covers

The exam specification puts five areas inside Materials and Resources: life-cycle impacts, including the concept of life-cycle assessment and human and ecological health; embodied carbon; product purchasing and declarations, including raw material sourcing and volatile organic compounds; reuse, recycling and repurposing of buildings, interiors, furniture and materials; and waste, covering construction and demolition, ongoing operations, waste diversion and waste management planning.

12 Materials and Resources practice questions

Fill in your details, take all 12 questions, and submit once — we'll grade it and email you the score plus a full explanation for every question.

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Welcome to the LEED Green Associate practice quiz. Enter your details, then work through all 12 questions — we'll email you the score and a full explanation for every question.

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1.What is embodied carbon?

A. Carbon emitted by a building's energy use during operation

B. Carbon stored permanently in timber products

C. Carbon associated with producing, transporting and installing materials, and with construction activity

D. Carbon offset purchased by the project owner

None

2.Which materials typically dominate a building's embodied carbon?

A. Concrete, steel, aluminium, glass and façade systems

B. Paints, adhesives and sealants

C. Carpet and ceiling tiles

D. Furniture and fittings

None

3.What does a life-cycle assessment evaluate?

A. The financial cost of a product over its service life

B. How long a material will last before replacement

C. The recycled content of a material

D. The environmental impacts of a product or building across its whole life

None

4.What is the difference between an Environmental Product Declaration and a Health Product Declaration?

A. An EPD discloses life-cycle environmental impacts; an HPD discloses ingredients and their hazards

B. An EPD is issued by the manufacturer; an HPD is issued by USGBC

C. An EPD certifies a product as sustainable; an HPD certifies it as non-toxic

D. There is no difference; the terms are interchangeable

None

5.What does "sufficiency" mean in this domain?

A. Specifying materials that will last the building's design life

B. Ordering enough material to avoid shortages

C. Avoiding demand for materials and resources in the first place

D. Meeting the minimum recycled content threshold

None

6.How does material efficiency differ from sufficiency?

A. They mean the same thing

B. Material efficiency uses less material for the same function; sufficiency avoids the demand entirely

C. Material efficiency applies to construction; sufficiency applies to operations

D. Sufficiency applies only to renewable materials

None

7.Which of the following does not describe a circular approach to materials?

A. Designing components so they can be taken apart and reused

B. Salvaging brick and timber from a demolition for use in the new building

C. Retaining and refurbishing an existing structure rather than rebuilding

D. Sending construction waste to an energy-from-waste facility

None

8.Why is building reuse considered such a powerful carbon strategy?

A. Existing buildings always use less operational energy

B. Reused buildings are exempt from prerequisites

C. Retaining structure avoids the embodied carbon of manufacturing an entire new frame and envelope

D. Older materials have lower global warming potential

None

9.What are volatile organic compounds?

A. Compounds that increase a material's embodied carbon

B. Compounds used to make materials more durable

C. Refrigerant gases used in cooling systems

D. Chemicals that off-gas from products at normal indoor temperatures

None

10.Put the waste hierarchy in the correct order, most preferable first.

A. Reduce, reuse, recycle or compost, recover, dispose

B. Recycle, reduce, reuse, dispose

C. Reuse, reduce, dispose, recycle

D. Recover, recycle, reuse, reduce

None

11.What is waste diversion?

A. Moving waste to a different disposal site

B. Redirecting waste away from landfill and incineration through reuse, recycling and composting

C. Reducing the amount of packaging on delivered products

D. Separating hazardous waste from general waste

None

12.A contractor routinely orders 10% more material than the drawings require, "just in case". What is this called, and what should the team do about it?

A. Contingency — it is standard practice and is not a LEED concern

B. Overage — reduce it through careful design and procurement, return what is unused, donate or recycle the rest

C. Diversion — it counts towards the waste diversion rate

D. Salvage — it should be stored for future projects

None

Time's up

Where candidates lose marks in this domain

• Confusing embodied and operational carbon. One is locked in at construction, the other accrues in use.
• Confusing life-cycle assessment with life-cycle cost analysis. Environment versus money.
• Treating an EPD or HPD as a seal of approval. They disclose; they do not certify performance.
• Putting recycling at the top of the waste hierarchy. It is third.
• Reading "sufficiency" as "enough". In LEED it means avoiding the demand altogether.

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