What information needs to be on the receipts?

David: Don’t forget to identify the type of construction or demo material that is headed for recycling or the landfill, using categories like Concrete or Wood etc. Be sure the name of the business and contact info is on the receipts too for the hauler or end user. Keep in mind that the receipts, invoices, and loading tickets that you are requesting and compiling will be for your LEED records and compliance tracking. Only comingled waste requires “proof” to be provided to GBCI in the submittal documents, which your area may or may not have as an option. That said, GBCI could ask for your backup documentation if they felt it necessary so hang on to your receipts. Has the Construction Waste Management Plan been written yet for the project? Sharing it with your local enterprises will also help to communicate what your project waste goals are and how you will go about achieving them with their help. We like to take photos of the more interesting solutions for waste diversion, such as donation as you mentioned, and it becomes part of project’s green story. Rigid roof insulation cut-outs for skylights on one project became an insulated wine cellar for one worker. Metal siding scrap on another project turned into a small horse barn elsewhere.

David – for the donated materials calculation, I try to always make sure the project will earn the credit threshold goal if for any reason these materials get denied. In other words, make sure the donated materials don’t make the difference between earning the point or points you absolutely need to achieve. That said, in the case of the rigid insulation for the wine cellar, we obtained the manufacture’s weight figure per full sheet from the product literature. Each of the 35-40 skylight cut-outs were exactly the same size. We calculated how many full sheets we had in cut-out portions and multiplied it by the weight per sheet. We then took photos of the truck loaded up and got a signed statement from the recipient. That was for a v2.2 project. Since we were not audited on this credit, this backup documentation was never seen by USGBC, so I can’t say that this method was formally accepted. But it was the project team’s attempt to meet the credit intent and to practice creative sustainable strategies.

Sometimes keeping track of all receipts and the information in them is difficul, specially in latin america. We have one project that is recycling all concrete demolition (100% of it) but some receipts have the name of the project, other receipts have the name of the general contractor and some other have the developer's name. The same happens with de address, some have the general contractor's address and some other the actual LEED project address. Is it possible that the general contractor writes a letter saying "receipts A,B, C, D, etc... correspond to the demolition and recycling of concrete waste of XXX LEED project"?

Michael - It’s always a wise strategy to have your backup organized. You never know when you might need to produce it for a reviewer question. I think your idea for a letter is a good idea.

Exactly Michelle, with the amount of time it will take to produce all that information we also believe it is a good idea to have all those letters and all supporting documentation. We just wanted to know what you would think about supporting information with this type of letters. Thank you very much.