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CI-2009 MRc5:Regional Materials

Everything is an assembly.

I recently got a review back that said that every material I am using to demonstrate compliance for Mrc5 is an assembly and "therefore, the individual components must be separated by weight." Since the contractor did the bulk of the material listing on the spreadsheet, I can agree that the items like asphalt and concrete should have been broken out in its components. However, I have other materials for compliance like: -drywall -metal studs -ceramic tile -rubber base -ceiling tile -ceiling grid -the casework components, which are broken out separately related to cost The review noted that it appears that "the point of final assembly is being used as the manufacturing location." They also site an addenda from 2010 for the credit that says something a little different. The review is asking me to report all of it by weight now instead. First, I do understand that we are beholden to any addenda published, however, we have reported items like ceiling tile and grid this way since 2010 and have never been asked to report it by components and weight instead. I reported each individual component of the cabinet and used the casework shop at the point of final manufacture, which is where all of the pieces were put together to make that final product (the cabinet). The easy answer is that each of these items be changed to where that particular piece be manufactured instead, but why or how would they want me to break it down further? I guess I am not understanding how to accomplish this for all of the MRc5 materials. Thanks for any help.

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Thu, 07/11/2013 - 20:18

Well, you're not beholden to any addenda that was published after you registered the project. You can choose to accept an addenda but aren't forced to do so. But you know that already. They want you to break out things further so that a minor amount of true regional content in the product does not qualify it for 100% regional materials. Say you are buying a lot of ceiling tile and the final manufacture of the tile is 150 miles away from your project. But as you dig deeper you discover that all of the mineral fiber is recovered 600 miles away and only the binder was recovered within 500 miles. Now instead of 100% regional product, you have a product that is 5% regional. (And I made that % up.) We ask that materials to be reported by weight and reported as a percentage as part of the LEED submittal. But it has been very difficult to get the extraction, harvest or recovery locations reported from most manufacturers. The regional content has been a hot button for reviewers lately and we're submitting an appeal today on one project. It has been getting a lot of my attention also lately. You aren't alone!

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