Recycled Content Criteria?

Brad, the credit language is worded a bit confusingly, but what you are going to count is the actual value of the recycled content, not the whole product.So let's say you have a $1,000 steel beam that is 25% recycled. You can count $250 toward credit compliance. If it is produced locally you can multiple that by 2x to get $500.

As Tristan says, credit languaje is(very, not a bit) confusingly and this has not been corrected. If the option 2 states: "Recycled content. Recycled content is the sum of postconsumer recycled content plus one-half the preconsumer recycled content, based on cost. Products meeting recycled content criteria are valued at 100% of their cost for the purposes of credit achievement calculation." It can be understood (and so has it been) that despite recycled content, product will contribute in its whole value. Here in Chile, many mistakes have been made regarding materials contribution evaluation because of this lack of accuracity in this option requirement. Is there any way it can be rectified. Regards,

When it comes to consumer content, USGBC clings to the ISO 14021 definition for recycled content which does not allow certain types of material to be regarded as pre consumer recycled content that primary manufacturers encounter from primary breakdown of a log into useful outputs.Some composite firms chip whole logs although this is not cost effective and from what I hear rare. When certain composite board manufacturers make recycled content claims, we as LEED APs here are not certain they are ISO 14021 for this reason (if teams are concerned we suggest SCS but even their fine print might allow in certain inputs that would not pass muster on ISO 14021... so we do not make recycled content claims ourselves, but simply pass our composite supplier promotional materials onto the project teams and invite them to engage directly with our composite suppliers for more detail.This requires the team to carry the spec (including manufacturer) to get assurance recycled claim honored by composite firm represented at specification through to fabricators. Many times we get the ask about recycled content after the project is installed and while we at times can run forensics on past production and render an opinion it is challenging and sub optimal.Remember also that composites have glue and wax holding them together too, so they are not 100% wood. In typical composite panel there are roughly 9 lbs of cured adhesive weight vs. 3 lbs of cured chemistry inside a virgin decorative wood panel of all natural veneer. While I see the value of recycled content in terms of reduction of impact on forested landscapes, I do take exception with the idea that recycled content is categorically exempt from PCRs for panel and composite products...the original wood had to come from somewhere didn't it?Composite products are vital to success due to their super smooth characteristics, but it feels at times like the deck is stacked against responsibly sourced (FSC) virgin materials, especially since USGBC buried FSC in LEED V4 in comparison with LEED 2009.