If salvaged materials are appropriate for your project, this credit should be easy enough to achieve. But you have to use a lot of salvaged materials to reach the threshold, so it's most feasible for small projects that target sources of salvaged materials early in the design process. Even then, it can be tricky because these are not the sort of things you can specify and count on being able to order from a supplier--the contractor or owner usually has to procure and stockpile salvaged items when they become available. That has to happen early enough that they can be included in the design, which is often long before they are needed on the job site.

Some projects also run into trouble with the fact that salvaged items aren't rated for structural strength or flame resistance. Wood timbers often have to be graded based on a visual inspection by a licensed lumber grader, and samples of other products may have to be tested. If you can overcome all those hurdles, however, the results are often very rewarding, as salvaged items add character and instant charisma to a project.

 “Reused” vs. “recycled”

It’s not unusual to have some confusion about the difference between “reused” and “recycled”—often the terms are (incorrectly) used interchangeably—but there is a distinct difference, especially for the purposes of LEED.

Recycled refers to anything that contains recycled materials as a result of the manufacturing process—carpet that contains recycled material, for example, could be made from post-consumer recycled plastic bottles.

Reused material is something that has been reused or repurposed from another location or a different role—like antique doors salvaged from an old church, raised floor pedestals saved from one office project and sold to another, or office partitions from your relocated from a previous office to a new one.

Pricing can be tricky

When you’re trying to determine the cost value of reused, salvaged, or donated materials, you may run into some difficulties, especially in finding replacement costs for comparable new products. It’s helpful to work with a construction pricing expert who may already have cost estimates on hand.

Another choice you will need to make is whether to value reused items at their actual cost or at the replacement cost. In some cases, it may not make much of a difference—the reused materials may be of similar value to the price of a comparable new item. But in other cases—for example, if you’ve purchased antique woodwork—the cost of the salvaged item may actually be significantly higher than the replacement cost of a comparable new item. Make sure to examine the actual and replacement cost of each item so that you know which will be most advantageous to your earning the credit.

Piggybacking credits—with limits

In most cases, materials that have multiple environmental attributes can be applied to as many of the MR credits as they relate to. That is still true in most cases, but for this credit, there are limitations. Materials that apply to this credit cannot be applied toward: 

• MRc1.2: Building Reuse—Maintain Interior Nonstructural Components,
• MRc4: Recycled Content,
• or MRc6: Certified Wood.

On the other hand, reused materials often contribute to these credits in addition to MRc3:

• MRc2: Construction Waste Management. Materials qualify if salvaged onsite.
• MRc5: Regional Materials: Materials can qualify—use the vendor or salvage location as the “manufacturing” location, and use the place from where the materials were salvaged from as the “extraction” location. 

Don’t confuse materials reuse with building reuse

There is also frequent confusion between MRc3: Materials Reuse and MRc1.1: Building Reuse whenever salvaged materials are recovered from the demolition of a project site. It’s an important distinction:

• MRc3: Material Reuse can involve material that is salvaged onsite and used again onsite for another purpose or in another location. The onsite salvaged material can count towards both MRc3: Material Reuse and MRc2: Construction Waste Management. For example, if a project demolishes a building and saves all the wood doors from going to the landfill, then turns the salvaged doors into countertops for the new construction, the salvaged doors count both credits.  
• MRc1: Building Reuse can involve preserving part of a building or a material onsite and reusing it for its original purpose, or leaving it in its original location. The preserved portion of the building, or the material, only counts toward MRc1: Building Reuse (but not toward MRc3: Material Reuse or MRc2: Construction Waste Management). For example, if a project demolishes part of an existing building, leaving all interior walls with the existing doors intact to be used for the new building, the doors count only as building reuse.