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You have to buy something
If you plan to make any purchases of durable goodsDurable goods have a useful life of 2 years or more and are replaced infrequently or may require capital program outlays. Examples include furniture, office equipment, appliances, external power adapters, televisions, and audiovisual equipment. during the performance period, you are eligible to earn this credit—there is no minimum purchasing requirement. The purchases can occur during the performance period, or up to two years prior to the end date of the performance period. If you are going to or have purchased any furniture or electric-powered equipment during that time, it may qualify for the credit criteria....
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10 Comments
Purchases pre-performance period?
Your blog mentions that purchases made up to 2 years previous to the end date of the Performance Period can count for this credit. We do not see this in the Reference Guide. Can you explain your rationale?
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Nov 12 2009
Chris, my YRG buddy and super-EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. expert Jason Franken says that in the LEED-EBOM Rating System, the performance period for any credit must last for at least 3 months, but may be extended back for up to 2 full years. You can find this info in the Introduction to the LEED Reference Guide for Green Building Operations and Maintenance (pages xix – xx). This strategy may be particularly useful for MRc2 because the purchasing cycle for durable goodsDurable goods have a useful life of 2 years or more and are replaced infrequently or may require capital program outlays. Examples include furniture, office equipment, appliances, external power adapters, televisions, and audiovisual equipment. like electronic equipment or furniture may not overlap with a short 3-month performance period. By extending the performance period back, you can include older qualifying purchases to help improve the overall level of credit compliance.
What about leased products?
Many companies lease their computers - how do leased durable goodsDurable goods have a useful life of 2 years or more and are replaced infrequently or may require capital program outlays. Examples include furniture, office equipment, appliances, external power adapters, televisions, and audiovisual equipment. fit in with MRc2?
Jenny Carney replied Director, YRG sustainability Feb 06 2010
In past projects, teams have successfully incorporated leased goods into their purchase calculations by including any costs associated with the lease that were incurred during the performance period. So, if you pay upfront for the entire lease period and that payment also falls in the performance period, you include it all. Or, if you make regular payments on the lease (say monthly), you would include the amount for associated with the months of the performance period.
Desk Lamps
When buying desk lamps, would having Energy Star rated light bulbs be sufficient enough? Or do the actual lamps have to be Energy Star rated?
Jenny Carney replied Director, YRG sustainability Feb 06 2010
Hi Reynaldo, lamp purchases (the actual bulbs) are dealt with separately under the Reduced Mercury in Lighting credit. According to the Energy Star web site, labeled desk lamps are available, and my opinion is that you would need a label on the actual fixture in order to claim compliance with the criteria for this credit. The bulbs don't really factor into this credit at all.
Carpet
Where does carpet fit in? Carpet isn't listed, but is certainly can be a durable good. I'm wokring on an NCv2.2 project and considering using this credit as a basis for an ID credit. We are looking into carpet that is NSF 140 Platinum certified & SCS certified.
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC May 04 2010
Have you looked at MRc3: Sustainable Purchasing—Facility Alterations and Additions? Seems like carpet is a more natural fit there, although I supposed one could argue that it's similar to furniture, a durable good, in some respects.
vehicles
The LEED guidebook (table 1 of MRc1 showing "ongoing consumablesOngoing consumables have a low cost per unit and are regularly used and replaced in the course of business. Examples include paper, toner cartridges, binders, batteries, and desk accessories." and "durable goodsDurable goods have a useful life of 2 years or more and are replaced infrequently or may require capital program outlays. Examples include furniture, office equipment, appliances, external power adapters, televisions, and audiovisual equipment.") actually includes vehicles. Will purchase of electric vehicles count for this credit?
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Jul 24 2010
This definitely seems like it would qualify under the electric equipment portion of this credit.
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