LEED Interpretation 10372

I'm going to disagree with you on this one, Tristan. This is an important change to the previous LEED policy that caused no end of confusion, ample evidence of which can be found elsewhere in this forum.

The previous policy said that "new" wood could not apply to MRc7. This had the effect of forcing various actors in the supply change to figure out what percentage of a product labeled FSC Mix % or FSC Mix Credit was recycled content and to "back this out" of the MRc7 calculation. For a simple product like a sheet of MDF, this wasn't such a big deal, since as you point out most manufacturers disclose recycled content separately. But where it can get quite complicated and confusing is where the MDF is one component in a complex value-added product like furniture or architectural millwork.

This LEED interpretation aligns LEED v4 requirements for FSC-certified wood with LEED 2009. Now, if a product is FSC Mix and also has recycled content, project teams have to choose which "environmental attribute" they will use to classify the product, and it (and its dollar value) will either go into an FSC "bucket" or into a recycled-content "bucket." No more parsing, weighing, measuring and dividing is required. It's one or the other, period.