Our building did divert 50% of ongoing consumables during out last LEED EBOM certification in 2010. We did perform a waste audit at that time so we acquired MRc6. Recert guidelines state that because of this we must perform waste audits annually until our next recert. My question is whether we have to continue to perform waste audits to maintain MRc6 if during our last waste audit we found that 50% of our ongoing consumables are being diverted? Thanks for your help.
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Trista Brown
Project DirectorWSP USA
449 thumbs up
March 24, 2015 - 3:43 pm
Hi Blair, the Recertification Guidance (October 2013) says that a waste audit needs to be performed only once every 5 years if MRc7 (aka 50% diversion) was earned. So you should be fine if you've done one audit between your initial certification and when you submit your recertification application, since you earned certification in 2010.
Vanessa Seibert
Principal, ArchitectVerde Concepts
55 thumbs up
March 24, 2015 - 5:06 pm
Thank you Trista. I am still unclear though about how this impacts maintenance of MRc6. If we obtained MRc7 last time then we only need to do one audit during the PP. If we did not obtain it we must perform annual waste audits if we want to maintain MRc6. We did an audit last year (and the years prior) but aren't sure we have to do one this year since last year's audit showed compliance with MRc7. Does that make sense?
Trista Brown
Project DirectorWSP USA
449 thumbs up
March 24, 2015 - 5:30 pm
I think I get what you're saying, but bear with me if I get it wrong! Essentially, the outcome of the waste audit doesn't matter. What does matter is if you earned MRc7 by diverting 50% during the performance period. Since you did divert 50% in the initial certification, you only have to do one waste audit every 5 years. So since you did a couple audits you will be just fine and don't need to do another one this year.
And for MRc7, you'll have to demonstrate ongoing diversion of at least 50% to earn that credit. Doing the waste audit (or not) doesn't affect compliance with MRc7. Does that help? Let me know if we're still not quite on the same page here!
Vanessa Seibert
Principal, ArchitectVerde Concepts
55 thumbs up
March 27, 2015 - 7:01 pm
Trista I am very sorry. I made a BIG mistake in my original question. We did NOT meet the 50% diversion of ongoing consumables during the last certification. We are still working on numbers but believe we have met it this fourth year in the current Performance Period? Does that help clarify whether we need to do one in the fifth year?
Trista Brown
Project DirectorWSP USA
449 thumbs up
March 31, 2015 - 1:53 pm
Hi Blair, thanks for clarifying! This is making more sense and I have a couple of thoughts. First I think that if you're now achieving 50% diversion, you should be able to skip the fifth waste audit, since you’ve improved performance to the point where MRc7 is attainable (which is the whole point of doing an audit annually).
Second, since MRc7 wasn’t pursued in the original application, you’re allowed to use a 3-month performance period for that credit in the recertification application. Of course you can provide more than 3 months worth of data if it helps you to show that you met the 50% threshold. But that rule might help you to slice and dice the data in the best way to demonstrate that you're achieving MRc7.
I hope this helps!