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What’s “rapidly renewable”?
Rapidly renewable materials must have a harvest cycle of 10 years or fewer. This includes materials like bamboo, agrifibers, and others listed on the chart below. Materials for this credit can come from either plants or animals—but they have to be harvested without harming the animal. Wool is okay; leather isn’t.
“Big ticket” items are just the ticket
This credit can be very easy to achieve—it only requires that a small percentage of the materials budget be spent on rapidly renewable materials. But it can become challenging unless you make a concerted effort to research and specify products with rapidly...
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10 Comments
viscose
If a product has cotton and viscose blend, can I the entire product be considered rapidly renewableTerm describing a natural material that is grown and harvested on a relatively short-rotation cycle (defined by the LEED rating system to be ten years or less). or just the cotton portion?
Giselle, just the cotton portion.
Linoleum production in USA
I heard a rumor that linoleum may once again be manufactured in the USA. Anyone know a US manufacturer, or why linoleum is not manufactured in the USA?
No, I haven't heard of this. Armstrong has a biobasedGenerally, classification of products and materials derived from plant and animal sources as opposed to minerals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a program to promote the use of emerging biobased products that defines them more narrowly, to exclude products that already have established markets, such as food, animal feed, and lumber. tile that I believe is manufactured domestically, but it's not exactly linoleum.
Is Acacia tress a rapid renewable material?
i get to know from my supplier that their product was made from Acacia trees and it will growth to maturity below 10 years. i try to check on USGBC or EPA list of renewable resouces material and i cant find the list. any idea where i can have the list of rapid renewable material list?
Hi James,
There is no official list. Any biobasedGenerally, classification of products and materials derived from plant and animal sources as opposed to minerals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a program to promote the use of emerging biobased products that defines them more narrowly, to exclude products that already have established markets, such as food, animal feed, and lumber. material that otherwise meets the requirements should be accepted. If you can get formal documentation from your supplier about the less-than-10-years cycle, than you should be OK.
When the rules were written, 10 years was picked in part to exclude any wood products, since those are covered separately under Credit 7. But that's not how the requirement was written.
As a best practice (not a LEED requirement) you might want to see if you can get the Acacia from an FSCIndependent, third-party verification that forest products are produced and sold based on a set of criteria for forest management and chain-of-custody controls developed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an international nonprofit organization. FSC criteria for certifying forests around the world address forest management, legal issues, indigenous rights, labor rights, multiple benefits, and environmental impacts.-certified source. Then you can also claim credit for it under Credit 7.
HI Naday,
unfortunately their forestry gain the CoC from PEFC and not from FSCIndependent, third-party verification that forest products are produced and sold based on a set of criteria for forest management and chain-of-custody controls developed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an international nonprofit organization. FSC criteria for certifying forests around the world address forest management, legal issues, indigenous rights, labor rights, multiple benefits, and environmental impacts.. cant obtain these credit for MR7. really appreciate your advice!
leather - rapidly renewable?!
bit of a strange question here - got a project using leather clad executive chairs and the product datasheet from the german manufacturer is suggesting that this can count towards rapidly renewableTerm describing a natural material that is grown and harvested on a relatively short-rotation cycle (defined by the LEED rating system to be ten years or less). materials.
While the reference guide in general relates to plant products, the inclusion of wool makes me think that the idea of animal products in principle is not ruled out. and assuming the max. 10 year lifecycle is upheld..?!
anyone have any experience with this?! thanks!
vicki
i realise that the credit intro above specifically rules leather out, but i cant find anything in the reference guide which defines this criteria of not harming the animal. besides which, if the leather is a wasteful by-product of a different production line, theres no reason to say this cant be "harvested in a sustainable fashion".
Be interested to hear from anyone with review-experience in this respect. Many thanks in advance!
We had some discussion on this question on the NC version of the MRc6 forum. I would check that out.
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