Menstruation hygiene products

I agree that that specific requirement for this credit is doesn't completely make sense for this credit. Also as a woman, I don't expect for restrooms to provide mentruation hygiene products from most restrooms. I see it as a benefit for some facilities, but it doesn't make sense for all building types. I wonder if you could include your explantion in your documentation and also list that as a barrier to earning the credit. As a pilot, GBCI is looking for that kind of feedback. 

Thanks for looking into this Sara, I'm looking forward to seeing the answer! To me the biggest ambiguity in the credit language is whether the intent is for the products to be free to building users, or whether a paid vending machine is acceptable. 

My personal two cents - any method of distributing supplies should allow someone to pick them up with as much privacy as possible. If the intent is to promote equitable access for all genders, that means a trans male student shouldn't have to risk outing himself by picking up supplies from a person or from a highly visible area. (Not to mention how many women who menstruate deal with embarrassment around getting supplies in front of others!) So the campus store idea doesn't sit well with me - it doesn't sound like it *increases* access to these products, since they're already for sale in stores - but a central distribution point that also offers other essentials could be set up to give people privacy when they're grabbing supplies. 

Thanks for the update! It sounds like as the designer, you could get away with allocating space for a dispenser and letting the building owner decide whether it's free or paid. Not to make it sound like "getting away with" something less than ideal,  just that the language reads to me more like they want you to provide a way to distribute products inside the restroom but are leaving the specifics up to the operations folks.

Haven't dug into this one too much yet but I have a couple student housing projects in the pipeline that could be a good fit, so I apprciate you sharing your experience. Now I'm wondering if this credit would apply in a dorm where most restrooms are private within a suite, but there are all-gender public restrooms - not seeing anything in the credit that requires a minimum number of public restrooms...

@Sara - Thank you for posting your response from the LEED Coach. I did not pick up that degree of intent from the use of the word "Facilities". I am consulting on a library project that has grouped together multiple all-gender restrooms with a common corridor or small vestibule.  The Owner would like to locate the dispenser in the common area outside of the grouped restrooms to serve each restroom. It appears to me, from the LEED Coach's comments, that this would not be an acceptable setup. Privacy would be too limited. It seems that this would apply to the stalls in a larger multi-user all-gender restroom as well. A dispenser in the common restroom area, near the lavs for example, would not be sufficient.

Following up on my previous comment, I consulted a LEED Coach and received a response counter to the expectation in my post, "Locating the menstrual hygiene materials within the shared lavatory area for a multi-stall restroom facility or in a common vestibule area for a grouping of individual stall restrooms would be acceptable and meet the credit intent."

The LEED Coach added, "Examples of locations that would not be acceptable are locating the menstrual hygiene materials in a central public area of the building away from the restroom facilities, or in an area outside of the restrooms (such as a health center or janitor closet) where occupants would have to request products."

I hope this information proves to be helpful.