Following up on Wendy's question, we are working with a number of laboratory buildings and an aquarium. They purchase ongoing consumables such as chemical reagents, aquarium salts, and fish food. There are no "green" alternatives to most of these products, at least at present, given the narrow functional requirements. To me it makes the most sense to exclude these products from both MRc1 and MRc2, but I haven't seen anything in the Reference Guide or elsewhere that establishes this as an acceptable approach. Any experience on this?
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Dan Ackerstein
PrincipalAckerstein Sustainability, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
819 thumbs up
July 13, 2010 - 12:09 pm
I agree with your conclusion Marian - It doesn't seem logical to include products that are so 'process'-specific to your building's unique function, and for which the sustainability criteria identified in the rating system & reference guide are not relevant. I think you can probably exclude them in purchasing, although you may have to address them in waste. Also, I would note that you might consider fish food in light of the Sustainable Foods credit, which doesn't technically limit itself to food for human consumption!