Materials & Resources credits 3 through 7 state a default percentage of 45% of the total construction hard cost can be used as the Total Materials Cost for a project. We assume this is based on the U.S. construction market. We are working on a project in Europe that is pursuing a Platinum rating, for which the project team believes a more accurate default would be close to 30% of the total construction hard cost attributed to materials cost, while the other 70% is attributed to labor. This is due to the fact that in the European construction market, the labor costs far exceed the material costs, when compared to the United States market. Can we use a different percentage if we provide a letter from a reputable Contractor from Europe stating this fact? If not, what documentation would we need to provide in order to establish a more accurate default percentage for European projects? Please note that in Europe, it is very common to have no submittal process, making it very challenging to collect LEED documentation. The easier we can make it to gain accurate documentation information, while making the real goal to meet the credit requirements and intents, the better experience this project team will have implementing LEED on their project. This will increase the versatility of LEED, making it easier to implement, while still maintaining the same credit requirements and its establishment as a universal metric.
The project team is requesting a lower default percentage of total construction costs to qualify for MR credits 3 through 7. The project team states that due to the increase labor costs in Europe, materials account for a lower percentage of total construction costs. However, European markets vary - similar to the micro-markets in the US. One letter, from one contractor would not provide enough substantial evidence to support altering the default percentage for an entire continent. However in this instance, the project team does not need to use the default percentage. For MR credits 3 through 7 the project team has the option of using EITHER the default percentage (45%) or providing the actual materials costs (excluding labor and equipment). By following the latter approach, the project team will be able to determine if they meet the credit requirements based solely on the cost of materials. Additionally, please note that per MRc5.1 ruling 5/24/2004 and MRc4.1 ruling 8/29/2003 - if any materials outside of Division 2 through 10 are included in the total materials cost, they must be included consistently in all calculations. Applicable Internationally; Europe.