The General Contractor (GC) in project I am currently working has specified FSC certified wood in the construction documents for the gym floor and window frames, which together will cost more than 50% of all the new wood in the building. The country where the project is does not have any gym floor or window manufacturers that are Chain-of-Custody (CoC) certified, so even though the wood will be FSC, if the traditional method is used, it would not count towards the MRc7 LEED credit, so I have the following two questions: 1) If the GC purchases the wood (therefore having the invoice with the CoC number on it) directly from the FSC CoC certified supplier and contracts a local subcontractor to use the FSC wood to produce the required products, would this pass and earn the LEED point? 2) Does anyone know from experience whether an FSC partial or fully certified project would count towards LEED certification? Any other alternatives I might not have covered would be welcomed...
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Doug Pierce, AIA
Architect / Sustainability StrategistPerkins+Will
235 thumbs up
April 23, 2011 - 1:41 pm
Hi Ward - I would lean heavily towards saying 'No' - the products will not qualify to support earning the MR7 credit. In my opinion, having the Contractor purchase the wood and then having a sub-contractor modify it will not meet the COC requirements for LEED. The rational for my opinion comes from the "Document Addenda, LEED Reference Guide for Green Building Design and Construction, 2009 Edition (first edition)" Here's the link (you should take a look at this document and come to you own conclusion):
http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=6392
Page 28 states that "Entities that install an FSC-certified product on the project building/site (typically project contractors or subcontractors, but also furniture installers and the like), do not require CoC certification as long as THEY DO NOT MODIFY THE PRODUCTS PACKAGING OR FORM EXCEPT AS REQURED FOR INSTALLATION (capitalization added). Contractors and sub-contractors that temporarily possess FSC-certified material prior to installation should be careful not mix or contaminate the FSC-certified material with non-FSC-certified material."
In my opinion, milling the wood into flooring or converting it to windows would qualify as modifying its form - going far beyond basic installation.
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