Date
Inquiry

INQUIRY: To help stimulate the development of sustainable product evaluation and certification tools by building professionals, we are seeking to establish an innovation point for specification of products certified under the SMART & California Gold Sustainable Product Programs explained at: http://mts.sustainableproducts.com/SMART_Building_Product_Standard SMART & California Gold provide manufacturers with a transparent measure of sustainable product achievement through consensus based standards. They help customers purchase and specify products that are pursuing a broad definition of quality. Through SMART and California Gold, this broader definition of quality means using products and materials safe for public health and environment as measured by LCA and 12 life cycle impacts; using renewable energy and energy efficiency; using recycled and biobased organic materials with EPA best management practices; increased water conservation; facility and company achievements; social equity; and product reuse and reclamation. SMART & California Gold meet all 24 Sustainable Product Certification Criteria (SPC Criteria) found here: http://sustainableproducts.typepad.com/Sustainable_Product_Certification.... To qualify for this CIR, SMART Gold & California Gold must have at the manufacturing facility 60% Green-e Power or 60% conventional energy reduction from the baseline. SMART & California Platinum must have 80% Green-e or 80% conventional energy reduction for both the manufacturing facility and suppliers. Eighty percent of all SMART & California Gold credits reduce climate change pollution. If a candidate product achieves the necessary criteria, it is certified as a Silver, Gold or Platinum Sustainable Product and must complete independent third party global auditing requirements of manufacturer and supplier facilities. The following Intent, Requirements and Submittals for this Innovation in Design application are suggested: Intent: Help stimulate the development of certified sustainable products for use by building professionals. Requirements: Use SMART or California Gold Certified building materials and products for 2.5% of the total value of all building materials and products used in the project, based on cost. The "cost value" of products for the purposes of this calculation will be discounted by 50% for Silver level products, and doubled for products certified at the platinum level: Cost value of products = (Silver x 0.5) + Gold (1.0) + (Platinum x 2) Submittals: Spreadsheet matrix with the following information: DEFAULT MATERIALS VALUE Total construction costs (hard costs for CSI Master Format 1995 Divisions 2-10 and 12** only): _______ Default materials cost (total Divisions 2-10 and 12** construction cost x 0.45): _______ OR ACTUAL MATERIALS VALUE Actual materials cost (excluding labor and equipment) hard costs for CSI Master Format 1995 Divisions 2-10 only): _______ - Material Name/Description - Manufacturer - Total Material Cost ($) - Percent Of Product SMART or California Gold Certified (% by Weight) - Compliant Product Value - Adjusted value (Silver x 0.5, Gold x 1.0, Platinum x2) Total "cost value" ($) of SMART or California Gold certified materials: _______ SMART or California Gold certified material value as a percentage of total materials cost*: _______ *To qualify for this ID credit the percentage of SMART or California Gold certified materials must be at least 2.5% of the total materials cost. **CSI Master Format 1995 Division 12 may be included in calculations if materials from Division 12 are used consistently with calculations in credits MRc3-7 in LEED-NC or MRc3-6 in LEED-CS. LEED-CI projects are required to include Division 12 components in the calculation of this ID point, as these components are required for calculations in CI credits MRc4-7. Please refer to the LEED-CI Reference Guide\'s credit calculation instructions for guidance in calculating these credits.

Ruling

Yes, the suggested criterion encourages innovation through product improvement and is thus acceptable for an innovation point, given proper documentation upon LEED application. Note that the MR TAG and others intend to work towards establishing a set of criteria for product evaluation and certification tools that are referenced in LEED, whether in innovation points or in rating system credit language; and once those criteria have been established, it will be necessary to revisit whether or not proposed innovation points based on this draft language should continue to be approved. Regardless of the state of above-mentioned process, this CIR proposal\'s approval sunsets one year from the ruling posting date, at which time it is to be considered for renewal. **** The USGBC has updated the ruling to this CIR as of 9/28/09 to state that the 1 year sunset provision established in the original Credit Interpretation Ruling related to the SMART and California Gold sustainable product certification programs is hereby extended to all pre LEED-2009 projects, pending the development and adoption of criteria and processes for recognition of third party certification programs in LEED. Said criteria will apply to all currently recognized and proposed future programs. **** Applicable Internationally.

Internationally Applicable
On
Campus Applicable
Off
Credits