Carpet and vinyl tile are acceptable alternatives for an owner to cover 1,000 square meters...

The correct answer is A. $30,000 . The question asks only for the initial cost of the carpet, not its annual maintenance cost, life-cycle cost, present worth, or equivalent annual cost. In SAVE terminology, initial cost means the first expenditure required to acquire, produce, construct, or install the project, product, or process. The SAVE VM Dictionary identifies initial cost as the initial expenditure of resources and also treats it as interchangeable with capital cost. It separately defines life-cycle cost as the sum of initial cost, recurrent annual cost, single expenditures, and disposal or salvage value over a defined period. Therefore, the maintenance costs and service-life data are distractors for this specific calculation.

The carpet covers 1,000 square meters , and the installation cost is $30 per square meter . The calculation is:

1,000 × $30 = $30,000

Options B, C, and D incorrectly imply that additional costs have been added to the initial installation cost. In the Evaluation Phase, CVS candidates must identify the cost category being requested before performing the calculation. SAVE’s VM Standard places structured evaluation after creativity to compare alternatives while considering performance requirements and resource limits.

References/topics: Evaluation Phase; Initial Cost; Capital Cost; Life-Cycle Cost Analysis; Cost Classification.