Materials and Resources
What the category covers
MR rewards waste reduction, material transparency, and life-cycle thinking. Prerequisites in v4 BD+C: Storage and Collection of Recyclables and Construction and Demolition Waste Management Planning. Credits: Building Life-Cycle Impact Reduction, the three Building Product Disclosure and Optimization credits (Environmental Product Declarations, Sourcing of Raw Materials, Material Ingredients), and Construction and Demolition Waste Management.
Concepts to know
- Life-cycle impact reduction: whole-building LCA showing meaningful reduction across multiple impact categories versus a baseline, or building/material reuse.
- EPD credit: the recurring benchmark is 20 different permanently installed products from at least 5 different manufacturers; higher tiers add a percentage-by-cost threshold.
- Sourcing of Raw Materials: recycled content, reuse, wood certification, extended producer responsibility, extraction location reporting.
- Material Ingredients: chemical inventory reporting and manufacturer optimization.
- C&D waste: divert 50% for one point and 75% for two, tracking at least a few material streams and using a consistent weight or volume basis.
Traps
- The EPD, sourcing, and ingredient credits are three separate credits - mixing their thresholds is the most common error.
- Diversion percentages are of total waste generated, including land-clearing debris where included; hazardous waste handling differs.
- LCA must be a real comparison against a baseline building, not a single-material claim.
- Recyclables storage must serve the whole building, including occupants and haulers' access.
Rule of thumb
Anchor on "20 products from 5 manufacturers" for disclosure credits and "50% / 75% diversion" for waste. If a question quotes a number that does not match those anchors, suspect the distractor.