OK, I give up. Where’s the rapidly renewable credit in LEED-CS V2009? I admit I have not kept up on the changes; has it gone away like the slide rule and the dial phone?
If so, why? It always seemed to me that rapidly renewable was a smart idea and actually sustainable. Can one of you who are more in tune to LEED rapidly renew my knowledge base?
Rapidly renewable materials are bogus. Case in point: we are specifying cork flooring in our new offices and guess how far the product is being shipped? Contractor tells us that the cork flooring we selected is coming from Canada. Our new offices are located in Texas, not upper state New York.
Materials and Resources, Credit 6
LEED CS (Core and Shell) does not have the MRc6 rapidly renewable materials as a credit.
This is due to the nature of the projects; it is just a shell, where the tenants are going to use their own lay-outs and materials.
The credit is part of NC (new construction), Schools and CI (commercial interiors). Although is not part of the core and shell, it can be part of the Commercial Interiors if the tenant chooses to go for LEED.
Cristiana Georgescu
RA LEED AP BD+C
Viridian Energy & Environmental, LLC
50 Washington Street
Norwalk CT 06854
Do you have access to the internet? If so, type in www.usgbc.org into your browser (that’s the name for the window that opens up when you click on Explorer or Firefox, etc.) address window and hit the “enter” button. From there, you will find links (places on the page that you can click to go to other areas of the web site) to LEED, and to LEED V3. From there, you may access both the LEED V3 checklist in Microsoft Excel and the full rating system in Adobe .pdf format. Both are free of charge to download.
You will find that there has been no change from previous versions, still found as MR Credit 6: Rapidly Renewable Materials.
And, the cork is almost certainly harvested in Portugal. However, generally speaking, this is the type of shortcoming we observe with many LEED credits.
PS: Us northeasterners call it “upstate” New York. To many, that’s everything more than, say, 50 miles from New York City!
Rapidly renewable materials, like cork and bamboo, don’t grow in a lot of climates. In fact, without doing any research at all, my inclination is that most grow in tropical or sub-tropical climates where the growing season is longer and there’s sufficient moisture. So, unless your project is located within 500 miles of such an area, you will not get the Regional Materials points for that product.
The points for rapidly renewable and regional materials are different.
And, as a relocated New Yorker, upstate probably starts a little north of the Bronx (grin).
Oh, and Unregistered Guest #3? I hope you were trying to make a joke, because if you weren’t, you are being quite insulting.
Ok, so it makes sense I guess that CS wouldn’t have rapidly renewable, unless you are doing a straw bale wall. The wheat based boards are not used for sheathing, and I really can’t think of any other core and shell area that would be rapidly renewable. Wood doors, maybe?
I think we all recognize that the different credits are many times mutually exclusive, and that is a bit of the “bogus-ness” of parts of the LEED system. Still, there are rapidly renewable things that are not necessarily native here, but could be. Bamboo grows quite well south of the Bronx, for example here in Missouri, but we don’t grow it commercially, just ornamentally. Sheep could do well here too, but again it doesn’t seem to be a commercial success in the US. I think most wool for carpet comes from Australia.
But I do believe that rapidly renewable, if managed sensibly, is a great way to be sustainable. I would suggest, for example, that our domestic managed wood production is on the verge of being a renewable (somewhat rapidly) resource. And I am sure we will see other developments in this area soon.
I’d like to rename the rapidly renewable credit, the credit least likely to succeed. OUAT I had a LEED CI tenant fit out with bamboo walls and floors that didn’t even meet the credit threshold for rapidly renewable.
I have heard a rumor that someone in that southern garden state of New Jersey is growing bamboo for building products.
Lynn when I was in NYC a native referred to New Jersey as the Mid West.
George,
I think that the Rapidly Renewable criteria were intentionally written to not include wood or wood products. Just one of the ways the bias against wood products shows up in LEED.
As for me based in Asia, particularly in China, this is an easy low-cost credit, as bamboo is endemic here. We love bamboo or bamboo composite products, especially if sourced having FSC origins. Much to be said about the environmental benefits of bamboo. Sure in North America perhaps rapidly renewable products are rather Spartan, but hey LEED is a global application now, select appropriate credits most applicable for the locality of the site, starting with those that cost none or little to the Client!
LOL, Mark…I know that we thought of it as the hinterlands. But then the eastern end of Long Island was pretty rural, too.
I wonder if Lyptus would be qualified as rapidly renewable? I know that it reaches maturity much quicker than a standard tree - something in the 15 year range. That’s pretty quick for a tree.
well, Alder grows quickly too, but its mostly used for pulp for paper these days. Doesn’t most Lyptus come from Australia? Its not like its grown commercially in California, where its rather weed-like in its intensity. A lot of times the really fast growing trees can’t be used for anything but veneers because their growth rings are wide enough that there isn’t a lot of structural capacity there – see downgrading of Douglas Fir structural numbers.
(Love that poodle) My understanding is that Lyptus is farmed in semi-tropical/tropical areas. I think a lot of it is in Brazil. It’s a hybrid of eucalyptus, and is used for veneers as well as sawn lumber.
Lynn,
Lyptus is not considered to be rapidly renewable, and FSC will not certify it because it is plantation grown in Brazil, not from a natural forest in Australia.
Steve
But they will certify bamboo, which isn’t even a tree! It’s grass!
Is it just because it’s grown in another country? I know USGBC has problems believing that other countries can do the same things the USA can do, like certify and track…
Do Eskimos get RR credit for the ice in their igloos?
Hmmm.
But with “global warming,” they may become repidly diminishing materials…
Yes. Grown, harvested and manufactured within 500 miles (800 km in Canada) of nowhere.
They also get:
SS Prerequiste 1 - Construction Activity Polution Prevention
SS4.3 - Alternative Transportaion (Dog sleds and kayak).
SS5.1 - Site Development - Protect or Restore habitat
SS7.2 Heat Island Effect - Roof
SS8 - Light Polution Reduction
All of WE.
You get the picture
And:
MR2
MR3
MR4
(and maybe MR1)
Definitely IDP12 and IDP13 and probably all of RPCs.