LEED regional materials requirement

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Author Message Margaret G. Chewning FCSI CCS Senior Member Username: presbspec Post Number: 58 Registered: 01-2003 Posted on Thursday, July 07, 2005 - 08:17 am:    I have a SpecsIntact project that I need to address the LEED requirement reqarding the use of regionally available materials. Currently the article recommended by our LEED person to alert the Contractor of this requirement is below: REGIONALLY MANUFACTURED MATERIALS The following products shall be manufactured within 800 km of the project site; provide verification as required in Div 1 section LEED SUBMITTALS: "List of materials" I'm not real comfortable with this as it requires me to list specific products in the section or state that every thing has to come from within 800KM or 500 miles. Is there better phrasing that someone else has used, that indicates the need for the LEED requirement but doesn't tie the Contractor or A/E's hands? J. Peter Jordan Senior Member Username: jpjordan Post Number: 95 Registered: 05-2004 Posted on Thursday, July 07, 2005 - 12:25 pm:    I would state something to the effect that the project expects LEED certification at a certain level and expects to pick up this specific LEED credit, stating the criteria for earning the credit--a percentage of the construction cost). It is up to the Contractor to make this happen (especially with non-proprietary specifications). Certain products may indeed be specified with earning this credit in mind, but if the Contractor wants to "horse trade" a particular product that would meet the criteria for another product that doesn't and still meet the criteria using other products, isn't that what the Contractor is supposed to be doing (similar to their having to meet a certain percentage of disadvantaged subcontractor participation). William C. Pegues, FCSI, CCS Senior Member Username: wpegues Post Number: 411 Registered: 10-2002 Posted on Thursday, July 07, 2005 - 12:48 pm:    Margaret, The LEED 'leader' should be telling you what specific sections you should place this in. We don't list the specific materials, and no LEED consultant has recommended that. We have worked with about 5 different consultans over a large number of projects, and on this what they do is come up with list of sections where they want the description posted. All 5 of them have used the following statement to be placed in the specific section... >>>begins... Regional Materials: To the greatest extent possible all materials shall be manufactured regionally within a radius of 500 miles of the project site. Provide documentation identifying the location of manufacture. <<<ends. I would not like to have to go through my section and start verifying what materials were capable of meeting the distance requirement. We have had no problem with the above language. I actually think its a bit too 'wifty'. The contractor could just say, 'well, to the greatest extent possible, I was not able to do anything.' Though I have that wording in my master, I make the LEED consultant sign off on it every time. I would like something more restrictive, but I don't think it needs to be so specific as what they want you to do. William Susan McClendon Senior Member Username: susan_mcclendon Post Number: 12 Registered: 01-2005 Posted on Friday, July 08, 2005 - 09:35 am:    William, Since you have done this several times, may I ask whether the project actually achieved the credit for regional materials using this technique? I agree that the contractor could simply feign impossibility if he thought it would cost more, even if he knew about the requirement before the bid. He would believe that every other bidder would do the same thing so to be low bidder he couldn't afford to do anything else. Susan William C. Pegues, FCSI, CCS Senior Member Username: wpegues Post Number: 413 Registered: 10-2002 Posted on Friday, July 08, 2005 - 10:03 am:    Susan, We have only 1 project that has completed this process, and yes it got that credit. We have a number of others that are in process and those submittals are coming in to the LEED consultant's satisfaction. For me personally, most of the LEED requirements as written by the consultants is all very conditional. Even in the primary sections in division 1, the language submitted by the consultans is always in the form of the contractor 'should' do something, and the most common verb was 'attempt' to comply. Drove me crazy just reading it, and seriously, every one of the several LEED consultants all wrote their documents this way. We took the first one, rewrote them with correct language and sent that back to the consultant to review. He had no problem with it. Other consultants, we would get their recommended sections, take anything new or different and update our master, assure the language was correct and again send it back to them to mark up. They were all had no problems. But on this particular bit written in the specific technical section for regional compliance, they all really wanted it with that 'iffy' language in it. I figure that as with anything new, the contractors go along with it for awhile, just price it up accordingly. In our area here, there is so much going on that they are not hungry or having to compete very hard with each other. As things tighten up I would not be surprised to see problems start to crop up. William Susan McClendon Senior Member Username: susan_mcclendon Post Number: 13 Registered: 01-2005 Posted on Friday, July 08, 2005 - 10:09 am:    So if the contractor is only to attempt to provide regional materials, how does he show it? Is there a submittal required? Heather Huisinga, CSI, CCCA Senior Member Username: huisinga Post Number: 36 Registered: 05-2002 Posted on Friday, July 08, 2005 - 10:25 am:    My firm takes a slightly different approach. We have three projects that have successfully achieved this credit. Note, our business is with the private sector and are typically design-build projects. We include a Division 1 Section entitled "LEED Requirements" (very similar to Masterspec's version) tailored to our specific project with a requirement for locally harvested/manufactured products/materials. We include a list of intended points we plan to achieve in order to LEED certify the building. Then, we specify products/materials that can be procured within the 500 mile radius of the project site for the products/materials our team has decided we need to achieve this point. During design on our sustainable projects, we involve the Contractor in a series of meetings to declare the intent for LEED certification and what is involved or will be required of them during construction. We have not had any troubles getting documentation to support this credit from contractors. William C. Pegues, FCSI, CCS Senior Member Username: wpegues Post Number: 414 Registered: 10-2002 Posted on Friday, July 08, 2005 - 10:44 am:    Susan, Well, we did change the division 1 sections to get rid of the 'attempt' statements. Even there the language was that the contractor should 'to the best of his abilities' etc. show compliance via submittals. We changed all of that. Yes, in Division 1 there is a complete LEED requirement section. It goes over the LEED point list identifying the specific points. It refers to whether its obtained through design, and if it is a specified requirement it refers to a table. The table lists across the top the various requirements like voc, regional materials, recycled content, and vertically the specific spec section numbers and the field of the table checks off which category the section is complying with. In the section, the statement also appears, but it gets a nice 'at a glance' requirement up front. In the submittals section, there is a whole separate section about LEED submittals. We require that they come in packaged separately from other submittals and specifically identified as a LEED requirement submittal. No 'ifs' here. On our projects where the owner has a LEED consultant, these submittals are sent then directly to them and they collect them, take care of the interface with certification requirements. As an aside, here in the DC area, one of the counties, Arlington, Virginia, which has a really boooming high rise residential sector, requires all new construction to meet a minimal LEED number of points. They use the LEED checklist, and they negotiate with the developer as to the number of points they will require in the project - and which ones. Its not true LEED, they don't even require the lowest level of LEED certification be attained. They have a group in the county that takes all the "LEED type" submittals and assures that compliance is met. They have been doing that for several years now and it seems to be quite successful for the county. We have a large number of projects like this. We do it exactly as a LEED project, the same references to LEED, the only difference in the certification requirements referencing compliance to the local jurisdictions requirements as opposed to LEED. William Susan McClendon Senior Member Username: susan_mcclendon Post Number: 14 Registered: 01-2005 Posted on Friday, July 08, 2005 - 01:28 pm:    Actually, what I am more curious about is what people consider an acceptable format for LEED submittals. Are they just product data submittals with the relevant information marked? or are they a special form? or something else? William C. Pegues, FCSI, CCS Senior Member Username: wpegues Post Number: 415 Registered: 10-2002 Posted on Friday, July 08, 2005 - 03:57 pm:    These kinds of paragraphs are my LEED submittal requirements specified in the specific section under Part 1's Submittals. Just as there are separate paragraphs for manufacturer's data, shop drawings, samples, etc., there is a separate paragraph "LEED Requirements". Under that, depending on whether or not its required is posted the following subparagraphs: Recycled Content: Submit certification letter from material suppliers certifying specified percentage requirements of recycled content. Regional Materials: To the greatest extent possible all materials shall be manufactured regionally within a radius of 500 miles of the project site. Provide documentation identifying the location of manufacture. VOC Certification: Submit certification letter from material suppliers certifying VOC requirements comply with the contract documents. The specific technical requirements for these are in part 2 So, voc and recycled content are letters of certification. I have had product reps visit that want to indicate that they can comply with this and those have all produced an actual letter indicating their level of compliance. They all looked pretty much the same in 'generic' form. The regiona submittall is an location of manufacture. So, essentially as a letter of certification, they are a special form. Not just marked up indications on product data. William