Here's one I haven't seen and would love for people to weigh in on. A manufacturer of, let's say paint, has provided recycled content information but it's for the buckets their product comes in. My assumption is this then won't count because it's not permanently installed. But, it IS part of the cost of the material. So would you include this on your spreadsheet or not? I'm leaning towards not.
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Jon Clifford
LEED-AP BD+CGREENSQUARE
LEEDuser Expert
327 thumbs up
March 4, 2015 - 7:39 pm
Your instincts are correct. Products and packaging are apples and oranges.
ISO-14021 requires “The percentage recycled content for products and packaging shall be separately stated and shall not be aggregated.”
The calculation and documentation instructions in the Reference Guide call for tracking the recycled content of products (making no mention of packaging).
As a practical matter, design teams can specify products, but have little control over how a product is packaged or shipped. Also, only a few manufacturers include packaging data in their environmental data, so you could scarcely get a balanced measure of packaging’s impact.
The broader scope of LEEDv4 will give us the tools to measure a wider range of environmentally responsible practices.