Our LEED project consists of a 69,000 square foot addition to a 105,000 square foot University Athletic Center. The University will also partially renovate some portions of the existing Center, which consists of a series of buildings that date back to the 1930\'s. Although the renovation work in the existing Athletic Center will not seek LEED certification, the project team would like to implement as many sustainable strategies as possible on this work. For example, the construction team will be developing a Construction Waste Management Plan, consistent with the requirements of MRc2.1 (minimum 50% diversion from landfill), that will be utilized on both the Addition project and the renovation work. In order to streamline this waste management plan process, the project team would like to utilize a single set of dumpsters on site to sort the diverted and landfill materials. This will effectively commingle the materials for both projects, yet save the University the thousands of dollars it would cost to use and manage separate dumpsters. This will also eliminate any confusion as to which dumpster to use or not use as both the Addition project and the renovation work will be constructed within similar timeframes and in close location to each other. Thus, the project team is requesting USGBC clarification as to whether this streamlined approach is an acceptable means of complying with the intent of MRc2. The project team will ensure that at least 50% of the combined construction waste is diverted from landfill to comply with MRc2.1.
In the CIR above, the project team is seeking clarification on MRc2 as they are using LEED NC2.2 as the standard for a new addition to an existing athletic center. At the same time, unrelated renovation work is being done within the athletic center. The design team is requesting that material from a non-LEED project be allowed to commingle with the waste material from the LEED project. The CIR ruling dated 07/08/08 states that "individual buildings and spaces seeking certification need to be accountable for their individual construction waste management diversion rates and should be tracked and documented as such". Based on this CIR ruling, the project team should note that the material resulting from the renovation of the non-LEED project cannot be commingled with the material from the LEED NC addition project. This inclusion of material would lead to inaccurate calculations for MRc2.1. If the project team can devise and document a method that accurately assigns the waste from the two separate projects before combining, then this would be an acceptable compliance path. Please reference the CIR with a ruling date of 12/02/05 for guidance involving recognized commingling facilities and practices. Applicable Internationally.