Actually implementing a recycling program is not required, but if you don’t have one, you’re not realizing the environmental benefits of this prerequisite. (See the Documentation Toolkit for a sample recycling plan.)
The 500-mile requirement is measured as a radius around the site “as the crow flies.” In other words, the actual miles and path traveled by the product or material is not as relevant for the calculation.
An M&V program generally includes sensors—which measure the volume and rate of flow, watts of energy draw, temperature, length of time, and other variables—and a central processor—which stores the collected information and helps building managers interpret it. Building automation systems typically include the central processor needed for M&V, but not all of the sensors, or the additional programming to tally energy use and track patterns. Adding these pieces to a building automation system should be easy, though.
Most M&V programs submeter individual systems such as lighting, heating, and cooling. Plug loads are not always submetered individually, it is easiest to individually submeter larger items and subtract the totaled submeter number from the total building usage to get the estimated plug load number.
Permanent submetering or a BMS is not necessary. Project teams can instead choose a combination of utility analysis, spot-metering and permanent metering. However, these other methods will not provide the detailed information that a BMS would and may not help projects determine energy problems or understand actual energy use.
The 500-mile requirement is measured as a radius around the site “as the crow flies.” In other words, the actual miles and path traveled by the product or material is not as relevant for the calculation.