Calculating diversion by "replacement value" or weight

Lyle Axelarris

Building Enclosure Consultant

BPL Enclosure

LEEDuser Basic Member

58 thumbs up

January 28, 2013

The Reference Guide says "Reuse or recycle 75% of the durable goods waste stream (by weight, volume or REPLACEMENT VALUE) during the performance period." However, all of the discussion that I have seen talks about using weight or volume for documentation. Does anyone have any thoughts on using "replacement value" for documentation? How would you go about this (is there a "Blue Book" for computer equipment, or something similar)? My other question is about weight: We do not have an e-waste hauler that can give us a weight ticket. We offer outdated computers to employees to bring home for personal use. Any items that are not taken by employees are donated. If we document diversion by weight, should I weigh representative samples of the equipment to come up with an aggregate weight for the diverted e-waste? Any other suggestions?

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Dan Ackerstein

Principal

Ackerstein Sustainability, LLC

LEEDuser Expert

545 thumbs up

Wed, 01/30/2013 - 00:36

Lyle, On replacement value, I think you'd be fine if you just priced replacement equipment through a public vendor. You'll need to be a bit thoughtful about it - the replacement value of a 10 year old desktop PC clearly isn't the cost of a brand new laptop - but I don't think there is a standard source for those values. And yes, I think your approach by weight is sensible. Estimating weights within reason should be sufficient. I think for both of the above, the degree of scrutiny you place on the value or weight of individual items might increase depending on your diversion rate. . . Hope that helps, Dan

Lyle Axelarris

Building Enclosure Consultant

BPL Enclosure

LEEDuser Basic Member

58 thumbs up

Wed, 01/30/2013 - 02:10

Thanks, Dan. I think weight will be much easier (and more appropriate) than replacement cost.