I am working on an Environmental Retail Store which comprises of environment friendly products, appliances, organic food items, clothing along with a Cafe and 4 office spaces.
Documentation for recycling of cardboard, paper, plastic, glass and metals were provided in the submission. In the design preliminary review, the advice received was to provide documentation to confirm that a waste audit has been conducted using a similar project type. Since, the project type is unique its difficult to provide a specific waste audit example.
Please advise.
Thanks
Michelle Rosenberger
PartnerArchEcology
522 thumbs up
August 2, 2012 - 12:21 pm
Hi Harsha,
You've obviously got a lot of good info from Hernando on waste audits. But I'm confused.
Why would you have to do a waste audit to demonstrate that your facility has collection locations for recycling and a process for dealing with designated recyclable materials?
We've done countless successful CI projects and only needed a narrative and a floor plan with markups for container locations. A waste audit has never come into play unless the project is an EBOM.
Is there something I'm missing? Is this some kind of alternate compliance scenario?
Hernando Miranda
OwnerSoltierra LLC
344 thumbs up
August 2, 2012 - 1:22 pm
Michelle,
When I've been challenged to provide special studies and green tenant guidelines for LEED-NC the reviewers have insisted and the requirements have stood. The GBCI doesn't seem to be able to control this type of demand.
I too have completed a large number of LEED projects. I helped develop LEED CI, and the LEED CI Pilot Reference Guide, for the USGBC. This type of special study is not required. Somehow it is a becoming a requirement now.
I do not like this type of sudden new, undocumented, requirement. LEED should provide resources to help projects size recycling areas. This is nothing new. It was developed for use in LEED-CI Pilot. It was never used. Whether it made into LEED-CI v1 was a matter of getting feedback from the USGBC membership.
What I provided was a work in progress.
I neglected to post a more current version of the CIWMB waste study. The document I provided was based on a 1999 study. There is a 2008 update available.
http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/wastechar/wastestudies.htm#2008Study