Hot-Rolled Structural Steel - MRc4 Products

The letter should be provided by the structural steel manufacturer on their letterhead. Alternatively you can use the LEED V2009 default rate of 25% recycled content for steel products. One additional thought Is that it's doubtful that all the steel came from the same location and/or same process. That means you need a letter from each mill that various products were sourced.

Keith - Thanks so much for monitoring and contributing to this forum!! Your response is spot on. I just wanted to note that the default recycled content value for steel is 25% post-consumer waste. While this is definitely available for them to use, I'm sure the team is anticipating more recycled content benefit (verified, actual recycled content per material type as you indicate) from the steel if at all possible.

Robert—LEED does not certify environmental claims. Make your recycled content claims in accordance with the International Organization of Standards document, ISO 14021 — Environmental Labels and Declarations – Self-Declared Environmental Claims (Type II Environmental Labeling). Recognizing that material sources & composition vary over time, this standard allows manufacturers to base their claims on averages (typically annual averages). Your complex appears to participate in the entire process of structural steel manufacture, from ore to beam. Therefore, your metallurgists should have record of the formulations and all the inputs into the process. Using this data, they should be able to calculate and report post- & pre-consumer recycled percentages as outlined in the standard. As Keith points out, you can report the claim on manufacturer’s letterhead or similar document. [NOTE: Using the same dataset, your complex may also be able to compile extraction and reclamation source data for LEED Regional Materials Credit MRc5.]

Robert, FYI in case you don't have that ISO standard on hand, the definitions provided in the credit requirements are from this standard: "Postconsumer material is defined as waste material generated by households or by commercial, industrial and institutional facilities in their role as end-users of the product, which can no longer be used for its intended purpose. Preconsumer material is defined as material diverted from the waste stream during the manufacturing process. Reutilization of materials (i.e., rework, regrind or scrap generated in a process and capable of being reclaimed within the same process that generated it) is excluded. "