We will be salvaging furniture from a school already on our site, but we are not going for MR3 (Mat. Reuse) due to the limited amount. However, we might possibly use it for MRc5 (understanding that we would have to deal with furniture calcs for several other credits). My question: the LEEDUser info provided states that if you using the salvaged furniture for MRc3 you can doubledip and count it towards MRc5, but NOT MRc2. So, if I am counting towards MRc5, does this stop me from counting it towards MRc2 Const Waste?
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Nadav Malin
CEOBuildingGreen, Inc.
LEEDuser Moderator
844 thumbs up
May 19, 2011 - 7:17 am
Hi Renee,My reading of the rules, which I went through pretty carefully a while back, is that you cannot double count materials between MRc2 and MRc5. I think that LEED would look at that the same way it would look at double counting between MRc2 and MRc3--that is to say, if you're reusing it in your project it never became "construction waste" that needed to be managed. But I can't find an explicit statement confirming that, so it's possible you could get it approved.All this assumes that the school from which you're salvaging the furniture is being demolished (or, hopefully, deconstructed) as part of your project. If that's not the case, then I don't see how furniture from it could ever be counted in MRc2.
Renee Shirey
Stantec422 thumbs up
May 19, 2011 - 9:41 am
You are correct in the assumption that the existing building is being demo'd (lack of funds and time available for deconstruction) thus the furniture is being salvaged.
I decided to re-read the front section of the LEED Reference Guide for the MR credits, and found the following wording on page 337 - "Materials calculated toward materials reuse cannot be applied to the MR credits for building reuse, const. waste mgmt, recycled content, rapidly renewable materials, or certified wood."
The fact that they specifically call out Materials Reuse (MRc3) but none of the other ones leads me to believe that I CAN doubledip with MRc2 Const Waste Mgmt. and MRc5 Regional Materials. It may be a loophole that could be closed down the line, but I think I'm meeting the intent of both credits. The reality is, there are several sister projects being built and demo'd at the same time, so the salvaged furniture from the various demo'd bldgs may or may not go to the new buildings on the same site - it could go to one of the other new buildings on different (local) sites, but all the schools will recieve some salvaged furniture from the various demo'd schools.
Tiffany Moore
Built Environment ProfessionalBuilt Kansas City LLC
35 thumbs up
April 8, 2013 - 4:28 pm
I'm curious, was your double-dip for MRc2 and MRc5 on this project successful? I know it's been a while, but I have a similar issue on a current v2009 project, so I'd like to know.
Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11477 thumbs up
April 8, 2013 - 4:40 pm
There is a rule where, if reuse of a building can't qualify for MRc1 because you don't meet certain thresholds, you can still apply it to MRc2. You can't apply it to MRc5, however.Following this precedent, I'd say that it's logical that if you can't earn MRc3, then you could count that material against MRc2.Can something that is counted in MRc2 be counted in MRc5? This feels a little odd to me. But if a material is eligible in MRc3 it can be double-counted in MRc5. So if you follow the logic that something is MRc3-eligible, and you're just not pursuing that credit, then I'd feel comfortable counting it in MRc5.So I'd come down on counting the same material in MRc2 and MRc5 in this circumstance. I just wouldn't link those two credits in my mind. MRc3 is the phantom linkage that makes it work.I bet GBCI would answer this question if you emailed them. Let us know.
Tiffany Moore
Built Environment ProfessionalBuilt Kansas City LLC
35 thumbs up
April 8, 2013 - 4:59 pm
Thanks, Tristan. That is the path I went down as well, so at least I know my thought process is logical. I will ask GBCI and post their response.
Tiffany Moore
Built Environment ProfessionalBuilt Kansas City LLC
35 thumbs up
April 17, 2013 - 10:46 am
I received the following response from GBCI this morning. I submitted it under NC2009, but materials credits should be somewhat universal, so I will post the response here with my original question.
"You inquiry is asking weather material which would be applied to earning MRc3 can be applied towards earning MRc2 and MRc5, even if MRc3 will not be attempted. Yes, building materials found on-site which could contribute to earning MRc3 can also be applied to both MRc2 and MRc5, even if MRc3 will not be pursued."
Tristan, thank-you for the suggestion to contact GBCI. I haven't considered that an option in the past, but was pleasantly surprised at their response, both in the fact that is was a straight-forward answer and that it came back so quickly. I like this new approach!