Problem with FSC and COC shipped from other country.

It is not a problem to source products from outside the US, but you do need to make sure you are looking and asking for the right information. The FSC label on a product on its own will not suffice for your documentation needs for the LEED project. First, I recommend you check the FSC Certificate Database to verify the company carries a valid FSC certificate. The company should also be able to provide you with an FSC Certificate Code that you can check on the database as well. The database is found at the following link: http://info.fsc.org/certificate.php.

Next, to document for the credit, the FSC certified materials purchased from the certified supplier will need to come with FSC claims on the invoices for the products. These invoices with the FSC claims are required for the documentation purposes of the credit, and each invoice needs to have the following:
• Each wood product must be identified by line item
• FSC-certified products must be identified as such with their corresponding FSC claim
• The dollar value of each line item must be shown
• The company’s FSC certificate code must be shown on any invoice that includes FSC-certified products

FSC claims that contribute to MRc7 include FSC 100%, FSC Mix Credit, & FSC Mix NN%. Wood products that are identified on invoices as FSC 100% and FSC Mix Credit are valued at 100 percent of cost. Wood products identified as FSC Mix NN% are valued at the indicated percentage of their cost (e.g. a product identified as FSC Mix 75% is valued at 75 percent of the total cost).

If the supplier is FSC Chain of Custody certified and sells the flooring to you with the FSC claim on the sales document, than yes, this product can contribute to your achievement of MRc7. However, I cannot confirm that you will receive the MRc7 credit as you need to make sure that at least 50% of the wood materials are FSC certified. This means you need to take into account all the wood materials you used on the project.

Also you should note that the bamboo flooring can contribute to the MRc6 Rapidly Renewable Materials as well as MRc7. There is a LEED Interpretation (ID#2535) that provides this clarification at the following link: http://www.usgbc.org/node/1731359?view=interpretations.

Additionally, if millwork company is fabricating [modifying the original packaging] the final product with FSC materials at their shop [off-site], then the millwork company must be have FSC-CoC. See USGB:
ID#100000097- http://www.usgbc.org/leed-interpretations?clearsmartf=true&keys=100000097
and:
ID#10296 - http://www.usgbc.org/leed-interpretations?keys=10296

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