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Credit achievement is based on the cost of environmentally preferable purchases compared to the cost of total, ongoing consumables purchased. All consumables (environmentally preferable and not) must be tracked.

Tracking the environmental qualities of ongoing consumables is often a new process for project teams. Customize your tracking plan to accommodate unique product consumption and tracking needs.

Once you have a tracking system in place and all the tenants have bought in to the process, the only hard part about the credit is keeping up with the product tracking. The more organized the tracking process, the easier the credit.

Here’s what to track

You can gain the credit point if 60% of your ongoing consumable purchases meet the following Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) criteria.

Ongoing consumables for this credit include, at a minimum, these low-cost items:

  • paper (printing and copy paper, notebooks, notepads, envelopes),
  • toner cartridges,
  • binders,
  • batteries,
  • and desk accessories.
  • It is optional to include additional ongoing consumables such as flatware, disposable dining ware, cardboard shipping boxes and any other consumable your tenant may use.

The EPP criteria for this credit calls for products:

  • containing at least 10% postconsumer and/or 20% postindustrial material;
  • containing at least 50% rapidly renewable material;
  • containing at least 50% materials harvested, extracted, and processed within 500 miles of the facility;
  • consisting of at least 50% Forest Stewardship Council certified paper products;  
  • or rechargeable batteries.

Builds on EPP policy

This credit builds on the EPP policy developed as part of MRp1: Sustainable Purchasing Policy. The EPP policy should have identified the project’s goals, such as the percent of environmentally preferable products the project want to targets and who should be involved in the process. Use this credit to add more detail to these goals and to create a working action plan.

Purchasing environmentally preferable products for this credit should not add significant costs, as there are lots of competitive environmentally friendly product options on the market for items like paper, toner cartridges, and other ongoing consumables.

Can be tough for multi-tenant buildings

In multi-tenant buildings, purchases of ongoing consumables must be documented for all tenants. Purchase rates can be extrapolated for tenants who do not participate in tracking, but all estimated purchases are assumed to be non-compliant. That means that other tenants must raise their threshold of environmentally preferable purchases to help earn the credit threshold.

If you have a large anchor tenant or an unusual level of tenant cooperation, you should be in good shape; otherwise, this credit may be more trouble than it’s worth.

Consider these questions when creating an ongoing, consumable tracking program

  • Have specific, ongoing consumable sustainability criteria been addressed in your EPP policy developed for MRp1?
  • Does your project have existing purchase-tracking processes in place, or does a system need to be created? 
  • Can existing tracking processes be repurposed to track the product environmental qualities required by this LEED credit?
  • Who is responsible for purchasing—one person or a group of people? Does a centralized department manage procurement, or is each division separately responsible for procuring the materials they use?
  • What are the potential barriers to this project achieving sustainable purchasing?
  • How can you involve your existing and future vendors in supporting your sustainable purchasing goals?
Credits
MRc1