Some time ago I recall seeing information stating that in the MR Credits for manufactured products such as furniture users were directed to use the cost the customer paid for the product as opposed to trying to separate materials from the actual cost of manufacturing the product.
For some reason I am now unable to get my hands on that guidance and searching the LEED web sites has proved fruitless. The materials and resources excel template kind of get there by saying that you enter the "cost per item times the number of items", but I recall seeing something more definitive than that.
I'm trying to respond to request for product information where we are being told that it is OK to exclude the veneer from an FSC calculation as long as 70% by weight or volume of product is FSC (I don't believe this to be true) or in the alternative we are being asked to back out the cost of adhesives, cost of stains, taxes, transportation, etc., for manufacturing the product in an effort to lower the cost so that the non FSC costs will be less.
Would someone be able to help me out in locating the language that talks about using the purchase price for manufactured products?
Lori Knosalla
Policy and Standards Manager - Chain of CustodyForest Stewardship Council US
LEEDuser Expert
17 thumbs up
December 30, 2015 - 12:48 pm
For calculating and documenting FSC certified materials on a project, the cost of the final product to the project should be used, not the cost of each separate material component.
FSC certified products must be purchased from an FSC chain of custody certified supplier, unless the supplier is only installing the materials on the project and doesn’t do any offsite manufacturing. See the LEED Interpretation ID#10296: http://www.usgbc.org/node/1731363?view=interpretations
When FSC certified products are purchased from an FSC certified supplier, the product will be identified on the invoice to the project team with the cost of the product and the FSC claim (FSC 100%, FSC Mix Credit, FSC Mix NN%) which you will need both for calculating credit contribution on the excel template.
If the LEED Interpretation mentioned above applies, the FSC products may be purchased from a non-FSC certified supplier as long as the supplier only installs the final product on the project site and does not manufacture any of the products off the job site. In this case, the supplier still provides their invoice to the project team for calculating and documenting the cost of the product, but the supplier must also provide a letter from the manufacturer which states the FSC Chain of Custody certificate number and the FSC claim (FSC 100%, FSC Mix Credit, FSC Mix NN%).
FSC claims can only come from FSC certified companies and can only be produced and provided on invoices when all the forest based components of the product are considered an FSC eligible input, such as FSC certified, recycled or controlled wood. Using non-FSC eligible inputs render the product as non-certified, so it’s not ok to exclude a non-certified veneer from the calculation as the certified company would not be able to produce this FSC claim. The only exception to this can be found in the LEED Interpretation already mentioned above. The interpretation provides an alternative documentation process for architectural woodworkers that manufacture custom wood products for a project and also install the custom woodwork on the project site. In some cases an FSC claim cannot be produced as a component is a non-eligible input, and the FSC certified woodworker can instead follow the guidance as described in the interpretation.