stolen materials from dumpsters

Kathy: While I have not had this experience on any of our projects nor have I heard of a similar occurrence, I can simply offer an opinion as a practitioner. I suspect that since you have no way of knowing how much of the stolen HVAC equipment will be reused or salvaged and what portion of the equipment might be dumped, my guess is that it would not be counted towards diverted weight since it cannot be substantiated. You know more about whether this particular equipment was still serviceable making that the most likely motivation for the theft, or whether it was more valuable for its’ parts or as scrap metal. If you think it might still be in use and it is a very small community, you could have some fun with it and offer a small token reward for whoever comes forward to take “credit” for helping your team keep it out of the landfill! If they would give you a statement or just a photo of it in use, you are back on course. Or if they sold it for scrap, that is okay too! You just want substantiation it got diverted in some way. See if you can make the dumspter divers "partners in green"!

Though I can't help you with your current situation, I have experienced this as well on more than one project. We actually now request that our dumpsters have locking lids to prohibit this from happening in the future.