LEED Interpretation ID# 2535 ruled that, under LEED 2009, FSC-certified bamboo could be counted under both MRc6 (Rapidly Renewable Materials) and MRc7 (FSC Certified Wood). Does this recognition extend to the recognition for FSC-certified wood under Option 2 of this LEEDv4 credit? Or is it the case that, for bamboo to qualify, it needs to meet the requirements for Bio-based materials?
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Paula Melton
Editorial DirectorBuildingGreen, Inc.
LEEDuser Expert
183 thumbs up
October 4, 2016 - 11:35 am
Yes, it's my understanding that "rapidly renewable" no longer exists as a category and has been replaced with biobased (which requires certification and is unlikely to be applicable to bamboo).
Jason Grant
PrincipalJason Grant Consulting
LEEDuser Expert
164 thumbs up
October 4, 2016 - 11:44 am
Do you mean that the Sustainable Agriculture Network's Sustainable Agriculture Standard is unlikely to apply to bamboo?
Paula Melton
Editorial DirectorBuildingGreen, Inc.
LEEDuser Expert
183 thumbs up
October 4, 2016 - 11:49 am
Yes, that is what I meant. I don't know enough about SAN to know whether it COULD be applied to bamboo, but it hasn't been. SAN was designed for food crops.
Paul Davis
Sr. Marketing AnalystColumbia Forest Products
1 thumbs up
October 4, 2016 - 12:01 pm
To the extent I am aware, SAN was a system optimized for empowering small coffee, Caco farmers in third world settings. RA staff were quite surprised to find USGBC picking up this standard as there is not much focus on residual waste (which works its way into building products.) I am not aware of any effort by RA to scale this program. The LEED User Platform is apparently applying a kludge in the form of a supplier letter that certifies said firm conforms to SAN. Bamboo is not allowed to use this approach, according to LEED USER.