Sustainable Purchasing - No simple payback

John Ida

President

Urban Works, Inc.

LEEDuser Basic Member

54 thumbs up

January 27, 2011

Some of our clients' sustainable purchases (like ongoing consumables, for instance) do not have a simple payback or annual savings. Is it okay to include these items and mark the annual savings as $0.00? Or are sustainable purchases like ongoing consumables not intended for this credit. Similarly for sustainable purchases of durable goods, are we supposed to come up with an average of kWh saved by purchasing an EPEAT laptop over a regular one and how do we aggregate that same data with purchases like electric equipment for site/landscaping maintenance?

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Jenny Carney

Vice President

WSP

LEEDuser Expert

436 thumbs up

Wed, 02/09/2011 - 14:01

John, In my experience people don't try to capture expenses like ongoing consumables in the table, though you could if you wanted to. For durable goods, I would include computer and site maintenance equipment only if you really went out of your way to make a different choice per LEED, and there were sizable costs/savings implications. There's a fair amount of applicant discretion over including these types of smaller expenditures, so I wouldn't sweat it too much.