local food used as employee lunch

October 23, 2019

Reshadee Weerasooriya

Sustainability/LEED Executive
co-energi (Pvt) Ltd.

LEEDuser Basic Member

7 thumbs up

October 23, 2019

Hi all,

I have a bit of a tricky situation when considering ongoing purchases. The project is a manufacturing facility out of US. The certification is only for one building with manufacturing process. So the employee meals are prepared using local sourced food. However the canteen is in a different building which we don't take into LEED boundary. Also there are other buildings out of LEED boundary but in the site with occupants that use the same canteen meals.

My first question is, is it possible to consider local sourced food as the project is not a hospitality project?

Second if it is possible under above circumstances, how should I take the compliant % for the certifying building?

Thanks in advance.

Post a reply

Trista Brown

Project Director
WSP USA

LEEDuser Basic Member

449 thumbs up

November 12, 2019 - 4:05 pm

Hi Reshadee, I'm not sure it's possible to count food that's prepared and purchased outside the LEED boundary. You might want to contact LEED Coach and make a case for why you think this meets the requirements, and how you'd propose to calculate compliance.

Reshadee Weerasooriya

Sustainability/LEED Executive
co-energi (Pvt) Ltd.

LEEDuser Basic Member

7 thumbs up

November 12, 2019 - 10:34 pm

Thanks Trista. I am grateful if you could clarify some points for related to this credit as we are working on several OM projects.

In a case where the canteen is inside the LEED boundary, is it possible to get local sourced food as compliant category for a manufacturing building? A building that has a canteen only for the building occupants where food is prepared in this area using materials purchased from local surrounding, we can consider food as compliant category even if it is not a hospitality project, can't we?

Trista Brown

Project Director
WSP USA

LEEDuser Basic Member

449 thumbs up

November 13, 2019 - 3:48 pm

I think you can include food/beverage purchasing, but you wont be eligible for any additional points. The Exemplary Performance section of the RG doesn't mention food purchases for projects that are not hospitality/school projects. And Step 2 in the Step-by-Step Guidance says "Include food and beverage purchases in calculations for ongoing consumables if purchased for the project." So I think if food/beverages is in your top 5 most-purchased product categories, those purchases should be included in your ongoing consumables calculations.