Thanks for providing the template for this credit. I used the template for an EBOM Project I am working on, making the necessary project-specific changes.
However, under section 8: Fertilizer Use, I used the exact language you provided in the table:
Organic Feritlizer Percent of Applicable Chemicals 100%
Manual Weekly Weeding n/a complete adoption
Organic Mulching n/a complete adoption
I received an informal advance review from GBCI, and they gave me this comment:
Please provide a revised IPM, Erosion Control, and Landscape Management Plan that includes additional information on the performance measurement methods for fertilizer application. The performance metric must allow the project team to quantify the extent to which environmentally preferred practices are used. An example of a performance metric is the total volume of fertilizer applied to the project site.
I felt like 100% as a performance metric would suffice, but evidently they want something different. Any advice on how to make a change that will pass?
Jason Franken
Sustainability ProfessionalLEEDuser Expert
608 thumbs up
January 12, 2011 - 4:04 pm
Honestly, Steve, this seems like a comment from a confused Review Team. What you have provided is an iron-clad performance metric for chemical fertilizers. Maybe they didn't like it because the word "chemical" is still in there. All I can suggest is that you provide a supporting document in the form of a log of fertilizer applications over the performance period, making sure to indicate when a fertilizer is organic and highlighting the percent of total fertilizer applications that meet the organic criteria. It wouldn't hurt to include a narrative as well stating that no chemical fertilizers are ever used on the project site.
Jessica Hawley
Sustainability Consultant62 thumbs up
October 14, 2011 - 3:08 pm
Jason, we had a similar experience with an informal GBCI review. The comments that came back for both SSc2 & SSc3 had to do with peformance metrics and they are asking to provide some type of documentation / log to show we meet the minimum 20%. I'm advising my client to go back and pull invoices and maintenance records to come up with a log to document compliance. However, their initial review had a performance period that was over a year and a half long. Do you think it would be acceptable to change the peformance period to the 3 month minimum so they don't have to pull so many records in order to document the compliance? Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!
Jason Franken
Sustainability ProfessionalLEEDuser Expert
608 thumbs up
November 1, 2011 - 10:25 am
Well, to date, reviewer are correct in asking for evidence of "continuous improvement". Basically, if your plan indicates that you are shooting for anything less than 100% compliance with each aspect of site management, the reviewer needs a log that verifies that you're meeting the minimum of 20% compliance. To answer your question, I think it's fine to change your performance period to three months - just make sure that the end of all performance periods fall within 30 days of each other.
Jessica Hawley
Sustainability Consultant62 thumbs up
November 1, 2011 - 10:48 am
Thanks Jason. I also posted in another forum "LEED Reviews: LEED Online, Appeals, Design/Construction Submittals, and more" and the response I got there said that it was probably NOT OK but they were not sure and said I could call GBCI to ask. Has anyone else on LEEDUser had any experience with changing the performance period after the initial review?