Waste Management Expertise is Critical to Your LEED Building Certification Success
As more and more of us realize the high cost of doing nothing to preserve the environment and conserve resources, LEED Certification is fast becoming a “must have” for new and existing buildings. The benefits of a LEED-certified building include lower operating costs and increase asset value, a reduction of waste sent to landfills, conservation of energy and water, buildings that are healthier and safer for occupants, reduction of harmful greenhouse gas emissions as well as tax rebates, zoning allowances and other incentives across the nation.
LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification that a building or community is designed and built using strategies aimed at achieving high performance in five key areas of human and environmental health:
- Sustainable site development
- Water savings
- Energy efficiency
- Materials selection
- Indoor environmental quality
The independent non-profit Green Building Certification Institute provides the technical specifications for LEED certified structures. If you’re responsible for providing comprehensive LEED audits or are a building owner doing it yourself, you need trusted experts guiding you through the five key LEED components to ensure compliance and achieve the greatest value.
LEED Certification and Waste Management
The LEED specifications for building waste material and resource management require that every building must meet specific standards for both retrofitting existing structures and new construction. Two such specifications for existing buildings include:
Waste Management Policy and Waste Stream Audit: The intent of this specification is to “establish minimum source reduction and recycling program elements and quantify current waste stream production volume.” Specifically, those seeking certification must conduct a waste stream audit of ongoing waste stream to establish a baseline and identify opportunities for source reduction and diversion. It must also operate a waste reduction policy that addresses source reduction, collection, recycling, and occupant education.
Storage and Collection of Recyclables: This specification requires builders to; “Facilitate the reduction of waste generated by building occupants that is hauled to and disposed of in landfills or through incineration.” This means that contractors must provide an easily accessible area that serves the entire building and is dedicated to the separation, collection and storage of materials for recycling. The recycling area needs to include (at a minimum) space for paper, glass, plastics, cardboard and metals.
Simply put, LEED compliant building sites must recycle during construction and establish infrastructure for collecting, storing, and transporting recyclables during the ongoing operation of your building.
Here at WasteStrategies, we focus on the waste management component of LEED certification and can provide necessary services for recertification, perform a representative sample, help builders by providing waste auditing, consultation, or actually designing the contractor’s entire LEED certified waste recycling and management program.
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