LEED-2009 Materials and Resources Calculator (v06 & v07)

Hi Jon - Yes - The MR Calculator was an issue I brought up to USGBC when I conferenced with staff in late April. I've been exchanging e-mails with USGBC on issues with the new MR calculator since January when your forums began getting posts about problems.

I was surprised to learn that they had released multiple versions of the v06 calculator and then finally released a v07 one. (See more on this notice issue below in the last paragraph.) Despite these updates, I didn't post this information because when I looked at the v07 calculator the original issue that I heard about (i.e., no way to record MRc5 distances for BD+C) was still not fixed. My contact was going to follow up on the outstanding issues.

One thing I did learn was that it was intentional that all required backup was removed from the calculator. This was part of the overall attempt to simplify documentation requirements. (This is part of the draft USGBC article that I was able to preview. However, one of my requested edits to the article was that I thought it would be worthwhile that they include information on the new calculators that accompany many of the v06 forms. This would dovetail with explanation about the move they made to allow for offline functionality. We’ll see if that gets included.)

One of my follow up points to USGBC staff is that I don’t think it’s fair to make LEED practitioners be their beta testers. In addition, unless USGBC notices that these changes are made, we users do not know. Their process is not to change a form version unless there are substantial changes to the form. The “non-substantive” changes were just noted on the calculator page’s description section (See list of updates on this page as an example - http://www.usgbc.org/resources/materials-and-resources-calculator-v2009). A great outcome to these concerns is that moving forward they do intend to publish all calculator changes (substantive and non-substantive) in the Addenda Database - http://www.usgbc.org/leed-interpretations. To find these, chose Form Update as the Entry Type in the filters. I know this doesn't address all your forums' concerns but it's a start...

Jon - I posted a similar comment on some of your MR forums in order to help get the word out.

I was asked to review the latest Materials and Resources Calculator v08. It should be released with (or before) the 1/1/2017 quarterly LEED Addenda Update. It will be cataloged as a Form Update (under Entry Type) in the Addenda Database - http://www.usgbc.org/leed-interpretations.

Keep an eye on http://www.usgbc.org/resources/materials-and-resources-calculator-v2009 for the new version.

It addresses the concerns raised about how to enter regional materials by the embedded comment in cell T7, which USGBC updated to note that for BD+C only the furthest of the compliant manufacturing/extraction distances is to be entered. USGBC also added a similar note for Option 2 in ID+C.

At least this method of entering the furthest compliant distance can be used and you’ll be on the same page when the updated version is released.

The new v08 calculator has been posted - http://www.usgbc.org/resources/materials-and-resources-calculator-v2009.

USGBC will announce this with the January 2017 addenda but I wanted to pass along the news. Happy Holidays!

Thanks for posting this, Michelle, and Happy New Year!