Products with the U.S. EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE) label and products that claim to contain bio-based materials are not automatically approved in the LEED review process. If these products are important to your project, you can request a CIR  to help establish whether or not a particular product counts for sustainable purchasing credit. 

Make sure that you provide documentation confirming the mercury content for at least 20% of the lamps purchased during the performance period, and for any lamps with no mercury-content that have been included in the purchasing plan, and be sure that the documentation easily aligns with the information provided in the credit form.

Lamps for task lighting should be included, but remember only 90% of the total lamp inventory needs to be included, so that 10% exclusion may come in handy here.

Don’t forget to include outdoor fixtures! If you want to exclude exterior lamps as part of the allowable 10% exclusion or if they do not contain mercury, include a note to the review team and let them know why the lamps are not included in the purchasing plan.

Both electric-powered and propane-powered maintenance equipment qualify as environmentally preferable compared to gas-powered equipment. 

The purchasing goals in your policy do not need to match the required thresholds in the corresponding credit. For example, to earn MRc3: Sustainable Purchasing—Facility Alterations and Additions you must achieve sustainable purchases for 50% of total purchases by cost. You can set your policy goal at any level (above or below 50%) that makes sense for your particular project.

Any given off-site area can be used to certify only one LEED project. Do not double count or attribute the same area to multiple LEED projects. Off-site parcels can be divided so that multiple LEED projects can benefit, however appropriate documentation showing that no double counting will occur should be provided.

If your organization already protects/maintains/restores habitat space at an off-site location, you do not need to allocate additional funds to this area for LEED purposes.

If you are using off-site area to meet the credit requirements, and have a contract in place to provide labor to maintain/restore the site, some labor activities must be performed during the performance period.

If you are using on-site area to meet the credit requirements, you must provide a list of the native/adapted plant species that are present onsite.