Date
Inquiry

Intent: "Increase demand for building products that incorporate recycled content materials, thereby reducing impacts resulting from extraction and processing of virgin materials." The project targeting LEED-CS certification is located in Ontario, Canada. The LEED-CS Reference Guide requires that "SCMs as a percentage of total cementitious materials" and the "Dollar value of all cementitious materials" are provided by the manufacturer. The Redimix Concrete Association of Ontario states that concrete mixes are confidential, and as such will not divest the "Dollar value of all cementitious materials" as required by the LEED-CS Reference Guide. (For LEED Canada-NC projects, it is standard practice in Ontario for concrete suppliers to provide the overall recycled content of concrete in a signed letter.) To accommodate this situation, we propose the following documentation approach to the LEED-CS version of the SCM calculation. Following these steps will mathematically yield the same result as the procedure outlined in the LEED-CS Reference Guide: 1) The supplier determines the recycled content value due to SCMs for the entire project by multiplying the "SCMs as a percentage of total cementitious materials" and the "Dollar value of all cementitious materials". 2) The supplier provides a signed letter indicating the recycled content value due to SCMs for the entire project. 3) When completing the letter template, instead of providing the value of all cementitious materials and the recycled content, we provide the recycled content value due to SCMs, and indicate that the recycled content is 100% (pre-consumer). Please confirm if this approach is acceptable.

Ruling

The project team has requested an alternative compliance path for determining the value of Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCM) due to confidentiality issues. If SCMs are used as part of the percentage recycled content, a letter signed by the concrete supplier/manufacturer or professional engineer must be submitted that certifies the reduction in Portland cement from BASE MIX to ACTUAL SCM MIX (as a percentage of weight). This can be provided as a total reduction in Portland cement for all the concrete used on the project. Applicable Internationally.

Internationally Applicable
On
Campus Applicable
Off
Credits