Reused materials from project site - burned trees and stone

Hi Kevin,

My gut reaction is that this aspect would contribute to the demo/construction waste diversion, but not material reuse...this is a specific enough question, though, that I'd check with LEED Coach to be sure.

If you do, please post back here so we know the response. I'm sure this will come up again with the unfortunate increase in wildfires.

In addition to Emily's suggestion of waste diversion, I would think the wood could be considered "regional", and the stone is "material reuse" as long as its new use is different from the original application.

I have not had success claiming 'wood not harvested for constrution purposes' within this credit. In my instance the wood was local and cut down due to disease. Regional only applies when the product meets one of the criteria specified by the credit language (e.g., recycled, bio-based, FSC, etc.). If the 'diseased wood' was FSC or usgbc-approved equivalent, then it would be able to contribute....AND it could also potentially contribute to the regional element of the credit language.

If the stone is natural then it does not contribute to waste diversion or reuse. If the stone is 'man made' then it does contribute to waste diverion AND it is considered salvaged material that is a reuse material which contributes to the Sourcing of Raw Materials credit. 

This is my understanding, please correct me if anyone learns different from GBCI / LEED Coach...as I love to open up more ways to achieve LEED points! 

I would hope that the natural stone would qualify for material reuse in addition to the engineered stone.  Certainly LEED should not be creating an incentive to use more engineered stone over natural stone - direct comparison of EPDs shows that engineered stone has over 200% of the embodied carbon compared to natural stone.  If it does, hopefully this can be addressed in upcoming versions.

Hi Kevin, have you heard back from LEED Coach. I have similar issue of reusing stone extracted onsite.