Solid Surface Materials; Quartz, Corian, etc. claiming Regional

"Manufacture" is defined under LEED v2.0 and v2.1 as "the final assembly of components into the building product that is furnished and installed by the tradesman. Since the "manufacturer" is defined by LEED V2.1 as "final Assembly, the fabricator's shop should be used as the location of manufacture. The stone comes from Italy, however it is fabricated into your counter top locally. - This is how they are making a claim that it contribute to your regional credit - so long as the fabricator is within 500 miles.

Kevin, I see your point about the manufacturing point, but the big, gaping hole in the claim here is the extraction being in Italy. How can they get around that? I don't see it.

I understand that this is posted under the NC 2009 section, but I am going to refer to other versions of LEED in this response. The company is claiming that they can contribute to MR5 Regional Materials credit. This is a true statement - however misleading it ultimately might be. SEE LEED CI 2009 - MR5 Credit. For one point this credit is based entirely on the Manufacturing point of the products - only if you want 2 points does the extraction point come into play. So based on this LEED standard, their claim is true. LEED NC 2.1 requires that a minimum of 20% of the total value of the material and products used are manufactured regionally within a 500-mile radius. Of the 20% regionally manufactured materials requirement, at least 50% of the content is extracted regionally. In the past we have been successful with the following approach - We reported all regional materials that were Manufactured within the 500 mile radius - Including Solid Surface. We also listed all of the materials that were extracted regionally. Putting all of these items in the collective pot we achieved the appropriate ratio to meet this credit. So you have a list of all material costs - of that 20% is manufactured locally. Now- Of that 20%- 50% is ALSO extracted regionally, not all items will be regionally extracted. Note that the Credit Template states (equal to 10% of total materials). So this tells you that the other 10% of the materials will only be regionally manufactured, and not regionally extracted. The credit does not state that 50% of each individual material must have a minimum content of regionally extracted material. Rather -by cost - the sum of all items must show that 10% is regionally extracted. So in this instance, the solid surface did indeed contribute to this credit as well. - With that being said, you should check that this will work with your project.

So, the company's products can contribute to LEED-NC v2.1 projects and LEED-CI projects, but not any others, including LEED-NC 2009.

Ok, so this is the explanation I just received from the manufacturer. Is this possible? The factory is considered the extraction point? Doesn't this open the door for almost anything made in a factory to be considered a regional item? "Regionally Manufactured Materials are defined by the USGBC as assembled as a finished product (fabrication point) within a 500-mile radius of the project site. The harvest or extraction point in this case is the factory - Buffalo, NY, zip code 14207. Therefore, project site + fabrication point + manufacturer's location = must be within 500 mile radius." Given the way Corian is made, petroleum based plastics, I could almost believe this, but when this same argument is made for Quartz, extracted from Italy, I don't see that as a parallel product?

Jennifer, the factory is definitely not considered the extraction point, and this product does not qualify under MRc5 for LEED-NC 2009.I think if you read this thread closely you'll see that it does qualify for MRc5 but only under LEED-CI 2009 and LEED-NC v2.1, but not because the factory is the extraction point.