LEED v4: Is It Finally Addressing Compost?

Over the last few years, we have received many questions about compost: “can a composting program contribute to LEED?” LEED 2009 did not do a good job of addressing compost, essentially limiting it to Innovation in Design, but the arrival of LEED v4 in November has given USGBC the opportunity to fill in the blanks. However, is it doing enough to award building projects with compost programs in v4?

Benefits of Recycling Organic Waste

Composting is the process of recycling organic waste, which is ultimately reused as soil, fertilizer, or other organic matter. Organic waste includes anything that came from living things, such as food and paper products. Compost is treated differently than recycling, because it must be kept in a special, breathable container (sometimes with worms) and must be either returned to the soil or collected and transported to a composting facility.

Composting has many environmental benefits. Diverting organic waste from the landfill helps to reduce resultant methane and leachate production. Also, since it is reused as soil, it can prevent erosion, and stormwater runoff. Also, compost can help to regenerate poor or contaminated soil, because it has lots of nutrients and microorganisms.

Compost and LEED 2009

In LEED 2009, composting was not required or encouraged by the rating systems.

The Materials and Resources prerequisite, Storage and Collection of Recyclables, requires that “at a minimum paper, corrugated cardboard, glass, plastics and metals” must be recycled in an easily-accessible, dedicated area. While compost could be one of the materials stored and collected, it is not required, and extra points are not awarded for doing so.

There isn’t a pilot credit for composting, either, though it is possible to earn points for composting through Innovation in Design. However, a simple composting program will not do, because it’s considered a part of the Storage and Collection of Recyclables prerequisite, rather than additional.

However, a Credit Interpretation Request from 2005 (#3920) did say that a project could be awarded an Innovation in Design point for achieving a campus-wide recycling rate of 40% on a college campus. Organic waste (compost) was included in the recycling program, and could count toward the 40%.

Overall, though, this merely lumps compost in with recycling and does not specifically reward composting.

Composting and LEED v4

I was expecting to see more provisions for composting in LEED v4, the newest version of LEED, which is scheduled to be released in November 2013. However, it has only been included in LEED for Existing Buildings: Schools and LEED for Existing Buildings: Hospitality - but has been excluded from other rating systems. For example, in LEED v4 for New Construction, the requirement for the MR Prerequisite, Storage and Collection of Recyclables, is slightly altered, but still does not include compost. It has the same requirements as the 2009 prerequisite, but also requires proper handling of batteries, mercury-containing lamps, and electronic waste.

Where Compost Is Included...

The good news is, compost has been included in LEED for Existing Buildings in MR Credit 1, Solid Waste Management. It awards 2 points for maintaining “a waste reduction and recycling program that reuses, recycles, or composts” 50% of ongoing waste and 75% of durable goods. “Ongoing waste”, as dictated by the Ongoing Purchasing and Waste Policy credit, now includes food - but in EBOM Schools and Hospitality only.

So, while an existing school or hospital could earn points for composting, it could theoretically still achieve this credit without composting, and only recycling or reusing materials (or choose to forego the credit completely). Therefore, this is a good step in the right direction, because composting will help to achieve this credit. However, the credit is optional and can be achieved by recycling and reusing waste alone - so it’s not mandating or incentivizing compost very strongly at all.

Why Compost Should Be Rewarded

I think that while compost is addressed more in v4 than it was in the 2009 rating systems, LEED should still make a stronger attempt to encourage composting in green buildings. While the building’s energy efficient design and eco-friendly material use is important, the way that the occupants use the building is critical to how much energy and water it will use and how much waste it will generate - and ultimately, how much money it will save. Therefore, including composting requirements or incentives are important to ensuring that the building generates minimal waste.

You could make the argument that the Building Design + Construction rating systems do not address ongoing behavior, but many of the credits do provide for future occupant behavior. For example, the alternative transportation credits incentivize creating a car sharing program or having alternative fuel vehicles available on site. This doesn’t necessarily mean they will use them, but they put in the time and energy beforehand to make it as easy as possible for the program to be adopted.

Creating an on-site composting program takes a good amount of work: finding the appropriate bins and compost hauler, then setting up signage takes time and energy. If this were done before the occupants moved in, it would be much more likely that they would compost on-site.

The environmental benefits of compost are clear, and not just in existing hospitals and schools. LEED should be taking greater steps to incentivize occupants in all types of buildings, including homes, offices and factories, to divert their organic waste from the landfill and instead send it to composting facilities or to reuse it as soil on the project site. I’m surprised it’s missing, and wondering how or why it was overlooked.

What do you think?