What constitutes the difference beetween built-in furniture and moveable furniture? The project is a university building with classrooms. The students desks and chairs are bolted to the floor so as to preclude rearangement of furniture and maintain aisles and the distance between tables and chairs. The reception desk is bolted to the floor so as to preclude it being moved. Are these items clearly moveable furniture and not built-in furniture? This interpretation request is being submitted both for credit MR7 Certified Wood, credit MR4 Recycled Content and credit EQ4 Low Emitting Materials since we want to know how to treat the furniture in the calculations for these credits.
The LEED Materials and Resources (MR) credits look at materials used in the construction of the base building prior to the installation of fixtures, furniture and equipment (FF&E). Furniture designed as movable that is bolted down for operational purposes, such as the classroom desks noted in your inquiry, can be omitted from the materials calculations. Typically, casework that is constructed for the project and permanently installed by the general construction contractor is considered as a part of the building rather than the FF&E for the project, and should be included in the calculations. If a project elects to include FF&E in one MR credit, the FF&E must be included according to the administrative credit (ADc00) ruling dated 1/21/2003, as follows: "The June 2001 Reference Guide and previous CIRs state that only built-in furniture may be included in LEED credit calculations. On October 10, 2002, the LEED Steering Committee upheld and expanded upon an earlier decision to overturn previous guidance and allow non-permanent furniture to be included in LEED for New Construction v2.0 and v2.1 calculations, BUT ONLY if furniture is included in the project\'s scope of work. Furniture must then be included in all relevant credit calculations or none at all. The relevant credits, as determined by the Committee, are Materials & Resources credits 3 through 7. A common sense approach must be taken when deciding what to include as furniture. LEED certification reviews will ensure that project teams are reasonable with what they choose to include and will not skew the results and conflict with the intent of LEED. Office systems and furniture are expected to be the more common and applicable products in the marketplace. Because of inherent complexities addressing furniture within the Indoor Environmental Quality category (particularly credits 3.2, 4.4, 8.1 and 8.2), the Committee voted NOT to have projects address the issue of furniture in any IEQ credits. However, since furniture can have an effect on indoor environmental quality, projects that include furniture in the scope of work are eligible to apply for an innovation credit based on LEED for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) IEQ credit 4.5, Low-Emitting Materials - Furniture." Applicable internationally.