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. Teams must track relevant purchases made by both the building management and tenants during the performance period.

The following ongoing consumable product categories must be tracked:

• Paper
• Toner cartridges
• Binders
• Desk accessories (e.g. staplers, plastic organizers, etc)
• Batteries

But as you know from developing your Ongoing Purchasing and Waste Policy for MRp1, projects must also determine their top five most-purchased product categories, based on annual purchases, and track those items as well.

If your top five align with the categories listed above, that’s fine. But if they don’t align, you must include your project-specific top five categories in the policy and track them under this credit.

Watch out for electric-powered equipment

Electric-powered equipment is considered an “ongoing” purchase, and is also included in the scope of this credit. This means electric-powered equipment must be included in yourOngoing Purchasing and Waste Policy and tracked under this credit.

Additionally, you must develop a phase-out plan to replace your remaining non-compliant electric-powered equipment with compliant models when they reach the end of their useful life. This requirement is new to LEED v4 and may be tricky to meet in multi-tenant buildings where the owner and building management don’t have direct control over tenant purchasing.

Food: An additional requirement for school and hospitality buildings

This credit gets more difficult to achieve if you’re working on a school or hospitality project. These building types must track all food purchases and demonstrate that at least 25% of these purchases meet the applicable sustainability criteria. This requirement is in addition to meeting the requirements for both ongoing consumables and electric-powered equipment.

To earn exemplary performance, at least 50% of food purchases must be compliant (and you must meet the exemplary performance thresholds for ongoing consumables and electric-powered equipment as well).

Effective tenant outreach is key

Collecting purchasing data from tenants can be challenging, so early and effective tenant outreach is key if you plan on pursuing this credit. LEED v4 does allow teams to exclude up to 10% of the project’s total floor area from the credit calculations, but this allowance may not be enough if several tenants are unwilling to participate.

Don’t forget about your prerequisite policy

This credit builds on the policy developed for the MRp1 Ongoing Purchasing and Waste Policy. The policy is essentially a blueprint for this credit and should include key information about your top five most-purchased product categories, the project’s environmentally preferred purchasing goals, and who should be involved in the process.

But remember: although the policy is only required to cover purchases under the building management’s control, this credit covers all purchases in the building—tenants included. That means that if you’re planning to pursue the credit, your policy should reflect the entire building’s purchases.

Credits combined from LEED 2009

For those familiar with LEED 2009, this credit combines what were previously two separate credits. Teams must now track both ongoing consumables and electric-powered equipment—and meet the credit thresholds for each—to earn this credit. The credit thresholds are the same —60% sustainable ongoing consumables and 40% sustainable electric-powered equipment—but the credit is worth only one point.

An exemplary performance point can be earned if 95% of ongoing consumables and 80% of electric-powered equipment meet the sustainability criteria.

And don’t forget—if your building falls into the school or hospitality building types, you also have to meet the food purchasing requirements outlined above.

Updated sustainability criteria under LEED v4

Several familiar criteria are still in play for this credit that were relevant in LEED 2009, including recycled content, rechargeable batteries, FSC, Energy Star, and EPEAT.

However, some new criteria have been added to the mix, and the minimum thresholds for some familiar criteria have been ratcheted up. These changes are likely to make the credit more difficult to achieve, given that the new criteria options are fairly limited, and the bar has been set higher for familiar standards.

Ongoing consumables

Post-consumer recycled content

Products must meet the EPA Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines for Recycled Content for their product type. See the Documentation Toolkit for a summary of EPA’s recycled content guidelines for specific product types.

Product types that are not covered by the EPA Guidelines get credit for their recycled content with no minimum. However, pre-consumer recycled content no longer contributes to credit compliance, as it did under LEED 2009

Extended use

Extended use refers to rechargeable batteries and re-manufactured toner cartridges. There are no changes from LEED 2009 here.

FSC certified

No changes. SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) products are still not approved by USGBC and therefore do not contribute to credit compliance.

Biobased material

This is a new criterion under LEED v4. Bio-based materials are composed of biological products, renewable agricultural materials, or forestry products. To qualify as sustainable, bio-based materials must meet the Sustainable Agriculture Network’s (SAN) Sustainable Agriculture Standard, for FSC if they are forestry products.

The most well-known label that meets the SAN standard is the Rainforest Alliance. Products can self-declare conformance with SAN but they must meet additional requirements (see MRc3 Purchasing – facility maintenance and renovation for details). Given the extra legwork required, it’s likely not worth the effort to document bio-based materials other than those that carry the Rainforest Alliance label.

Electric-powered equipment

EPEAT rated

EPEAT rated products must have a Silver rating or better to contribute to credit compliance. In LEED 2009, any level of EPEAT rating was sufficient, including Bronze.

The EPEAT program covers the following equipment types as of March 2016: desktop computers, laptops/notebooks, workstations, thin clients, displays (computer monitors), televisions, printers, copiers, scanners, multifunction devices, fax machines, digital duplicators and mailing machines.

Energy Star qualified

Energy Star may be used to demonstrate compliance only if the equipment type is not covered by the EPEAT program.

For example, if you purchase an Energy Star qualified laptop that is not EPEAT Silver rated, you will not earn any credit for that purchase, since laptops are covered by EPEAT.

Replacement of gas-powered equipment

It’s rare for the equipment covered by this credit to use gas, but replacing existing gas-powered equipment with electric models (battery or corded) counts towards credit compliance. Gas-powered equipment that does not have an electric alternative can be excluded from the credit calculations completely.

Food and beverages

Local sourcing

Local foods and beverages are defined as harvested and produced within a 100-mile radius of the project—no change from LEED 2009.

Under LEED v4, only foods and beverages can use the local criteria for credit compliance. The local sourcing criterion no longer applies to other types of ongoing consumable products.

Sustainable agriculture

All of the labels that were accepted under LEED 2009 are still accepted under LEED v4: USDA Organic, Food Alliance Certified, Rainforest Alliance Certified, Protected Harvest Certified, Fair Trade, and Marine Stewardship Council’s Blue Eco-Label.

Some additional labels are also accepted under LEED v4: Canada Organic and European Community Organic Production.

Calculating compliance: only the sustainable portion counts

Only the sustainable portion of a product counts towards credit compliance. This is a major departure from LEED 2009, which counted the total cost of a product towards compliance if at least one approved sustainability criterion was met.

For example, if you purchased $1,000 worth of 30% recycled content office paper, the value that contributes to earning the credit drops from $1,000 under LEED 2009 to $300 under LEED v4.

But, products that meet more than one sustainability criterion still earn credit for both criteria. In this scenario, the dollar value that contributes for the first sustainability criterion is simply added to the dollar value that contributes for the second criterion.

For example, $20 worth of USDA Organic apples that were grown 90 miles from your building would contribute $40 towards earning the credit.

This new approach to calculating compliance rewards teams for purchasing products that contain higher proportions of sustainable materials or that meet multiple sustainability criteria.

USGBC has created a calculator to help teams track purchases, the sustainability criteria met, and the contribution to credit compliance. This calculator is posted in the Resources tab.

Readiness Review Questions

• Does your project currently have process for tracking purchases, or does a system need to be created? 

• Can existing tracking processes be repurposed to track the product environmental attributes required by this credit? 

• Who is responsible for purchasing—one person or numerous 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?
• How can you involve your tenants in supporting your goals?