LEED and Safety Officer Duties and Responsibilities

Hi Ann.  I am not sure I am completely clear on your question.  I don't believe I have ever had a designated safety or housekeeping person on a job site, where those were their only roles.  Laws require that safety measures are in place that everyone on the site must follow and be aware of, and in my experience, housekeeping is the responsibility of those working on site as well as the general contractor.  I also have never had a project have designated LEED coordinator, that wasn't already a member of the construction team responsible for other coordination.  We typically work directly with that person to capture data that they need, but LEED usually isn't their only responsibility. If you project does have a designated LEED and Safety officer, they could certainly share roles as long as the knowledge and expertise are present as needed and required.  Perhaps you could clarify "housekeeping" in your project's case?   I don't associate it so much the waste management process, but is a SMACNA guideline that requires that the site be cleaned regularly, dust minimized, and that harsh chemicals and toxins are not used as part of the process to keep a clean site.  If you can clarify, I might be able to provide further insight.  Additionally, the LEEDuser Premium membership allows you access to much more content, requirements, and explanations.  I highly encourage you to check it out and see if there might be additional resources to support your project.  

Hi Ann, I understand your frustration; first time working a LEED project can be quite a learning experience. If you don't mind me asking, where is the project being built? I'm located in Europe and would be happy to to give you advice and answer questions; basically help you navigate the process. Please feel free to contact me!

Hi Ann,

On LEED projects everyone; the architect, the engineers, the general contractor, need to understand their roles in making the project successful. If I understand your original question correctly, you want to know who’s responsible for “Construction Activity Pollution Protection” and “Construction Waste Management”.  If the general contractor does not have someone on staff familiar with LEED (an LEED AP or Green Associate) then typically someone familiar with the LEED requirements, working for the Design or Management team, would be responsible for explaining the procedures to the GC staff and documenting compliance…which sounds like your case.  To be clear, you wouldn’t be responsible for actually collecting/sorting trash, maintaining access area containment, or protecting installed work for dust and debris, etc., but you would be responsible for making sure the people working for the GC, assign to these tasks, do them correctly. In your original post you said the project has people assigned to handle safety and housekeeping, so you would simply need to make sure that they understand the LEED requirements since the procedures are probably quite different to what they are used to on other projects. You should inspect the “Construction Activity Pollution Protection” measures regularly…take lots of photos…and communicate with the safety/housekeeping people about whatever changes need to be made. You should also check the “Construction Waste Management” documentation (weight tags, percentages recycles, etc) regularly to make sure the waste is being handled correctly and the required LEED documentation is being maintained. It is vitally important that these credits are monitored throughout the project to insure success. Hope that helps!

Hi Ann

Thanks for posting such a important question.

Almost every LEED project has this issue of defining roles between safety and LEED.

Regarding construction waste management, LEED coordinator required to plan waste diversion strategy identifying minimum items which will be diverted from landfill. This includes allocating dedicated skips for onsite segregation regular monitoring and safe disposal once it's is ready for disposal.

Where as housekeeping of work area before waste dumped to dumpster or skips is responsibility of work area in charge as he is having direct control over all workman or team.

Please remember that intent is to divert waste leaving the site.

Safety team may work in close coordination with site team to improve housekeeping to ensure safe health environment & safety.