This is directly from the preliminary review report:
1. Bull Moose Tubing has been reported with a recycled content of 62.5% post-consumer and 37.5% pre-consumer. Additionally, Steel Dynamics product has been reported with a recycled content of 80% post-consumer and 10% pre-consumer. The provided manufacturer documentation indicates a range of recycled content values that these materials are composed of. When a range is provided, the lowest value must be used in the calculation.
2. Reading Rock CMU Cement has been reported with a recycled content of 0% post-consumer and 88.1% pre-consumer. The provided manufacturer documentation indicates that this material is composed of 0% post-consumer and 28% pre-consumer material.
TECHNICAL ADVICE:
Please verify the values for pre-consumer or post-consumer recycled content for all products and revise the form as necessary.
Regarding Note 1:
I placed Bull Moose Tubing &Steel Dynamics product on 2 separate lines on the credit form. Are telling me I have to use the lower recycled content value for both suppliers?
Regarding note 2:
Does this mean the reviewer has independently found documentation with a recycled content of 0% post-consumer and 88.1% pre-consumer? I am not sure what the comment means since my submitted document shows the lower values of 0% post-consumer and 28% pre-consumer material.
I appreciate any help on these comments.
Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11478 thumbs up
October 24, 2012 - 11:49 am
Jerry, I would contact GBCI directly for an explanation of these two comments. Although it can take them a few weeks, I have had luck getting reviewers to provide minor clarifications to review requirements that are confusing, as these are.
Hernando Miranda
OwnerSoltierra LLC
344 thumbs up
October 24, 2012 - 1:10 pm
BULL MOOSE TUBING
First, use of averages has always been acceptable for claims made. Forcing use of minimums is something new. When I get a claim with a wide range of content values I do use the minimum. Otherwise, average.
Bull Moose Tubing provides a recycled content claims letter that you have to analyze to get a useful result.
The first thing to note in their letter is the reference to "Steel Recycling Institute" (SRI) study. Bull Moose quotes BOF and EAF recycled content from the study. It is best to use the actual study and rather than the values quoted by Bull Moose. That way you can prove you documented the claim based on the same study used.
Bull Moose creates confusion by doing confusing math:
BOF = 31.7% Total Recycled Content
--Post-Consumer Recycled Content = 65%
--Pre-Consumer Recycled Content = 35%
For EAF they provide the same total and breakdown.
The recycled content total is not 100% (65% + 35%), it is 31.7%. The correct breakdowns are:
--Post-Consumer Recycled Content = 65% x 31.7% = 20.6%
--Pre-Consumer Recycled Content = 35% x 31.7% = 11.1%
Bull Moose Tubing also provides a breakdown of percentage of BOF and EAF materials used at each of their four plants. You can average the BOF and EAF values to get an overall Bull Moose Tubing value.
Now, multiple the BOF Plant average by the Pre- and Post- consumer recycled content claims for BOF and you get the Bull Moose BOF contributions.
Do the same for EAF.
Add BOF + EAF and the end result is the overall Recycled Content claim for Bull Moose based on the percentage of BOF and EAF processes, using the SRI study values.
For Bull Moose I ended up with the following results:
--Post-Consumer Recycled Content =
13.5% BOF x 20.0% EAF = 33.5%
--Pre-Consumer Recycled Content =
7.2% BOF x 13.4% EAF = 20.6%
Hernando Miranda
OwnerSoltierra LLC
344 thumbs up
October 24, 2012 - 1:21 pm
STEEL DYNAMICS
This company provides a very good recycled content letter. It is one of the few I get that references FTC 16 CFR 260 as the claim method, and separately accounts for "home" scrap.
Steel Dynamics claims are, based on a letter dated May 16, 2008:
--Post-Consumer Recycled Content = 75 - 84%
--Pre-Consumer Recycled Content = 10 - 15%
The above supports the claim you made for Steel Dynamics. The problem is likely with the claim letter you provided. Contact Douglas A Rees-Evans, Manager of Technical Services at Steel Dynamics, for the letter he wrote that references the above claims made.