We were recently denied a point on a project in which we worked with the landscape vendor to use half as much fertilizer as they were previously using. The reviewers said: "The narrative indicates that only a reduction in fertilizer use has been achieved. While reduction in the number of fertilizer applications is commendable, no environmentally preferable fertilizers were used during the performance period."
This seems odd considering the goal of the credit is to minimize the use of chemical fertilizers. Using no fertilizer certainly meets this goal and is more sustainable than using fertilizer, even if that fertilizer is less environmentally harmful than a conventional one. In the future should we really focus on using environmentally preferable fertilizers instead of working with landscape vendors to avoid using fertilizer all together?
SIG - Sustainability Main Account
Sustainability ConsultantsSustainable Investment Group (SIG)
86 thumbs up
December 11, 2012 - 12:22 pm
The intent is to eliminate synthetic chemical application to the Earth where organic methods are readily available. A lot of the properties I work with use no fertilizer at all, because it just generates growth that must be trimmed and creates 'waste' (to be composted). I agree the 100%performance metric is almost unreasonable when similar intents (SSc2) allow chemical use.
Hannah Bronfman
Senior Associate99 thumbs up
December 14, 2012 - 1:04 pm
Hi Andy
Given the credit requirements, I would recommend focusing on the use of environmentally preferable products. LEED and the USGBC try to establish performance metrics that are the most reliable (for instance, how do you prove that you would have used fertilizer but chose not to?) and can be most uniformly applied across varying building types and locations.
I totally agree that the intent is to reduce and am impressed with the measures you took, but LEED draw a firm line in how tracking should be done.
Thanks
Hannah
Andy Rhoades
PartnerLeading Edge Consulting
54 thumbs up
December 14, 2012 - 2:05 pm
Thank you for your insights. Moving forward we will look to implement the use of environmentally preferable fertilizers.