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What building components are typically purchased with FSC content to earn this credit?
Does FSC-certified wood automatically contribute to IEQc4.4 as a low-emitting material?
Does FSC-certified bamboo products count towards this credit?
Should wood used on site features such as benches or a gazebo be included here?
Is there a minimum quantity of wood that must be used on the project to qualify for this credit?
Jason Grant
PrincipalJason Grant Consulting
LEEDuser Expert
164 thumbs up
February 5, 2013 - 10:41 am
If by plastic composites you mean a laminate like melamine, then from an FSC CoC standpoint, you can't exclude it from consideration because it contains kraft paper. Many major manufacturers of high-pressure laminates now have FSC-certified offerings, so it should be possible to source FSC-certified laminate panels that combine these materials with FSC-certified substrates like particleboard or MDF.
Noriko Nagazumi
Woonerf Inc.74 thumbs up
February 6, 2013 - 2:33 am
Hi Jason,
Thank you for your inputs! By wood and plastic composites I mean outdoor deck floor products (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood-plastic_composite , http://www.eva-last.co.za/eco-decking.html), not laminates.
Do you have experience with this kind of product?
Jason Grant
PrincipalJason Grant Consulting
LEEDuser Expert
164 thumbs up
February 8, 2013 - 6:36 pm
I'm generally familiar with this product.
I believe the correct approach would be to treat the decking as an "assembly" per the LEED Reference Guide, and to calculate the amount of "new wood" as a percentage of the total weight (or volume), and then to multiply this by the total value as invoiced to the project contractor.
So if the composite decking is 30% wood by weight (or volume) and the rest is plastic resin, and the total invoice is $100,000, and the decking is not FSC certified, then you would add $30K to the total amount of new wood used and hope that at least 50% of that total is FSC.
Or if, as seems likely, you can show that the wood used in the composite decking is not "new wood" but rather is pre-consumer recycled content (i.e. manufacturing by-products), then you should be able to exclude it from MRc7 calculations altogether and instead factor it into MRc4 calculations if that is a credit you are pursuing.
Noriko Nagazumi
Woonerf Inc.74 thumbs up
September 18, 2013 - 12:56 am
Thank you!