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LEEDuser expert
Barry Giles
BuildingWise LLC
Founder & CEO, LEED Fellow, BREEAM Fellow
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Credit language
© Copyright U.S. Green Building Council, Inc. All rights reserved.
Intent
To reduce the environmental and air quality impacts of the materials acquired for use in the operations and maintenance of buildings.
Requirements
Maintain a sustainable purchasing program covering materials with a low cost per unit that are regularly used and replaced through the course of business. These materials include at a minimum, paper (printing or copy paper, notebooks, notepads, envelopes), toner cartridges, binders, batteries and desk accessories. Food and beverages are excluded from this credit but are covered under MR Credit 5. Sustainable Purchasing - Food. For materials that may be considered either ongoing consumables or durable goods (see MR Credits 2.1 and 2.2), the project team is free to decide which category to put them in as long as consistency is maintained with MR Credits 2.1 and 2.2, with no contradictions, exclusions or double-counting. Consistency must also be maintained with MR Credit 7. A template calculator for MR c1 is available in LEED Online 3 as a credit submittal. One point is awarded to projects that achieve sustainable purchases of at least 60%, of total purchases (by cost) during the performance period. Sustainable purchases are those that meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Purchases contain at least 10% postconsumer and/or 20% postindustrial material.
- Purchases contain at least 50% rapidly renewable materials.
- Purchases contain at least 50% materials harvested and processed or extracted and processed within a 500 mile (800 kilometer) radius of the project. Building materials or products shipped by rail or water have been extracted, harvested or recovered, as well as manufactured within a 500 mile (800 kilometer) total travel distance of the project site using a weighted average determined through the following formula: (Distance by rail/3) + (Distance by inland waterway/2) + (Distance by sea/15) + (Distance by all other means) ≤ 500 miles [800 kilometers]
- Purchases consist of at least 50% Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)–certified paper products.
- Batteries are rechargeable.
Pilot Alternative Compliance Path Available
The following pilot alternative compliance path is available for this credit. See the pilot credit library for more information. MRpc102 - Legal WoodCredit substitution available
You may use the LEED v4 version of this credit on v2009 projects. For more information check out this article.What does it cost?
Cost estimates for this credit
On each BD+C v4 credit, LEEDuser offers the wisdom of a team of architects, engineers, cost estimators, and LEED experts with hundreds of LEED projects between then. They analyzed the sustainable design strategies associated with each LEED credit, but also to assign actual costs to those strategies.
Our tab contains overall cost guidance, notes on what “soft costs” to expect, and a strategy-by-strategy breakdown of what to consider and what it might cost, in percentage premiums, actual costs, or both.
This information is also available in a full PDF download in The Cost of LEED v4 report.
Learn more about The Cost of LEED v4 »Frequently asked questions
We purchased hundreds of ongoing consumables items during our performance period. Do we have to enter each discrete purchase into the LEED Online credit form?The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
Our organization has a centralized purchasing program that buys products for several buildings, including the one pursuing LEED-EBOM certification. It’s difficult to track which ongoing consumable goods purchases are used in the EBOM building versus the many other buildings in our organization. Do you have any suggestions?The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
Purchasing for our organization takes place in the EBOM project building, but not all ongoing consumable goods that are purchased end up being used there. Should we include all of the purchases in MRc1?The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
We have multiple tenants in our building, some of which are nonresponsive to requests for purchasing records. Can we exclude their purchases?The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
Does a signed letter from a product manufacturer that states the sustainability criteria met by a particular product count as acceptable LEED documentation?The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
Do manufacturer claims about the average recycled content, etc. in all its products count as acceptable LEED documentation? For example, a toner cartridge website says that the average post-consumer recycled content is 90% across all its toner products.The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
Lots of products we purchase seem like they could be tracked in two different purchasing credits. For example, toilet tissue seem like an ongoing consumable since it’s replaced frequently at a low cost per unit (MRc1), but it’s also used for our green cleaning program (IEQc3.3). Am I supposed to count it in both credits?The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
The credit language says we need to track paper (printing or copy paper, notebooks, notepads, envelopes), toner cartridges, binders, batteries and desk accessories. Is that everything we have to track for this credit?The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
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© Copyright U.S. Green Building Council, Inc. All rights reserved.
Intent
To reduce the environmental and air quality impacts of the materials acquired for use in the operations and maintenance of buildings.
Requirements
Maintain a sustainable purchasing program covering materials with a low cost per unit that are regularly used and replaced through the course of business. These materials include at a minimum, paper (printing or copy paper, notebooks, notepads, envelopes), toner cartridges, binders, batteries and desk accessories. Food and beverages are excluded from this credit but are covered under MR Credit 5. Sustainable Purchasing - Food. For materials that may be considered either ongoing consumables or durable goods (see MR Credits 2.1 and 2.2), the project team is free to decide which category to put them in as long as consistency is maintained with MR Credits 2.1 and 2.2, with no contradictions, exclusions or double-counting. Consistency must also be maintained with MR Credit 7. A template calculator for MR c1 is available in LEED Online 3 as a credit submittal. One point is awarded to projects that achieve sustainable purchases of at least 60%, of total purchases (by cost) during the performance period. Sustainable purchases are those that meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Purchases contain at least 10% postconsumer and/or 20% postindustrial material.
- Purchases contain at least 50% rapidly renewable materials.
- Purchases contain at least 50% materials harvested and processed or extracted and processed within a 500 mile (800 kilometer) radius of the project. Building materials or products shipped by rail or water have been extracted, harvested or recovered, as well as manufactured within a 500 mile (800 kilometer) total travel distance of the project site using a weighted average determined through the following formula: (Distance by rail/3) + (Distance by inland waterway/2) + (Distance by sea/15) + (Distance by all other means) ≤ 500 miles [800 kilometers]
- Purchases consist of at least 50% Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)–certified paper products.
- Batteries are rechargeable.
Pilot Alternative Compliance Path Available
The following pilot alternative compliance path is available for this credit. See the pilot credit library for more information. MRpc102 - Legal WoodCredit substitution available
You may use the LEED v4 version of this credit on v2009 projects. For more information check out this article.XX%
Upgrade to LEEDuser Premium to see how many projects achieved this credit. Try it free »
Got the gist of MRc1 but not sure how to actually achieve it? LEEDuser gives step-by-step help. Premium members get:
- Checklists covering all the key action steps you'll need to earn the credit.
- Hot tips to give you shortcuts and avoid pitfalls.
- Cost tips to assess what a credit will actually cost, and how to make it affordable.
- Ideas for going beyond LEED with best practices.
- All checklists organized by project phase.
- On-the-fly suggestions of useful items from the Documentation Toolkit and Credit Language.
In the end, LEED is all about documentation. LEEDuser’s Documentation Toolkit, for premium members only, saves you time and helps you avoid mistakes with:
- Calculators to help assess credit compliance.
- Tracking spreadsheets for materials purchases.
- Spreadsheets and forms to give to subs and other team members.
- Guidance documents on arcane LEED issues.
- Sample templates to help guide your narratives and LEED Online submissions.
- Examples of actual submissions from certified LEED projects.
We purchased hundreds of ongoing consumables items during our performance period. Do we have to enter each discrete purchase into the LEED Online credit form?The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
Our organization has a centralized purchasing program that buys products for several buildings, including the one pursuing LEED-EBOM certification. It’s difficult to track which ongoing consumable goods purchases are used in the EBOM building versus the many other buildings in our organization. Do you have any suggestions?The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
Purchasing for our organization takes place in the EBOM project building, but not all ongoing consumable goods that are purchased end up being used there. Should we include all of the purchases in MRc1?The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
We have multiple tenants in our building, some of which are nonresponsive to requests for purchasing records. Can we exclude their purchases?The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
Does a signed letter from a product manufacturer that states the sustainability criteria met by a particular product count as acceptable LEED documentation?The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
Do manufacturer claims about the average recycled content, etc. in all its products count as acceptable LEED documentation? For example, a toner cartridge website says that the average post-consumer recycled content is 90% across all its toner products.The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
Lots of products we purchase seem like they could be tracked in two different purchasing credits. For example, toilet tissue seem like an ongoing consumable since it’s replaced frequently at a low cost per unit (MRc1), but it’s also used for our green cleaning program (IEQc3.3). Am I supposed to count it in both credits?The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
The credit language says we need to track paper (printing or copy paper, notebooks, notepads, envelopes), toner cartridges, binders, batteries and desk accessories. Is that everything we have to track for this credit?The answer to this question is available to LEEDuser premium members. Start a free trial » (If you're already a premium member, log in here.) |
LEEDuser expert
Barry Giles
BuildingWise LLC
Founder & CEO, LEED Fellow, BREEAM Fellow
