Logging into LEED

As the United States gradually began to recover from the Great Recession in 2009, some experts in the recycling of C&D debris were clued in long before the general public observed any tangible improvement in the economy.

That’s partially because those logged in to recycling tracking software like Green Halo detected an increase in C&D materials being generated from job sites. Green Halo tracks recycled and salvaged debris from construction and demolition sites. Dean Rodatos launched a new version of the online waste management and tracking system that same year.

Rodatos explains that as contractors, haulers and recyclers used the software to record their recycled material types and volumes in 2009, the system tracked the increasing numbers of recycled materials, displaying an uptick in construction activity.

He says there were several industry trends apparent through statistics gathered by Green Halo.

“All of that old stuff, which was demolition, was being reported into our system so we were starting to see the change before the economic indicators were telling the public that the economy was changing,” Rodatos says. “The system is identical to the market. You can see that if the market turns around, that triggers more construction and you can see a direct relation from that.”

Rodatos first developed Green Halo in 2005 in San Francisco, and it is now applied around the globe with nearly 20,000 users, although about 90 percent of the company’s work is based in the U.S. and Canada.

The company also recently introduced WasteTracking.com, an extension of Green Halo with more offerings and capabilities, such as producing a complete archive of a project, tracking from demolition to construction to when a building is occupied with tenants.

The system is used by contractors seeking software to assist in reporting of recycled materials on projects pursuing U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

LEED is a green building certification program that recognizes best-in-class building strategies and practices, according to USGBC. To receive LEED certification, building projects satisfy prerequisites and earn points to achieve different levels of certification.

Rodatos and other C&D recycling industry professionals say software has served as a faster, more efficient statistical tool to analyze data at construction and demolition sites while helping to increase recycling rates across the nation. The technology also thrives at a time when C&D recycling, in part due to LEED, is in growing demand.
 

Streamlined systems

Before the introduction of software technology, contractors like Michael Deane, vice president and chief sustainability officer for Turner Construction Co. in New York City, received stapled paper tickets from haulers that mailed the monthly invoices to his firm. He says the reliance on Excel spreadsheets and the transfer of so many documents between those involved with projects created the potential for mishaps.

“I was the guy in the trailer with the waste tickets and paper invoices to get information for the early LEED projects, and the best I could hope for was that a contractor would fax me an Excel spreadsheet that had the information I wanted like where the material was going, etc.,” Deane explains, adding, “There were all sorts of opportunities for bad data transmission and inaccurate reporting.”

To track project materials more accurately according to LEED standards, Deane says Turner developed an in-house online waste tracking (OWT) system. Starting small, the firm launched its OWT system in 2007 with 30 different projects reporting data to the software. Today, Deane says about 200 projects are inputting data each month, totaling nearly 2 million tons of debris diverted from landfill since 2007.

Since 2009, more than 50 percent of Turner’s total project volume have been LEED projects, according to Deane.

“The value of this data is to understand waste streams and modify the materials that come on-site to reduce waste completely,” Deane says.

Recently, Turner partnered with Green Halo and is only using its in-house system until the new platform, called Turner Trackers, is live (expected at the end of 2014). In Deane’s opinion, “Green Halo was superior to others we looked at so we will modify and rebrand their product so it does what we need it to do.”

He says Turner had several features it wanted in a waste tracking system, such as more applicability for capturing LEED requirements and the ability to upload paper tickets online using mobile devices.

“We always had a wish list of things we wish [OWT] could have done, but we didn’t have the time or money to implement those upgrades,” Deane says. “When I talked to Green Halo, most of the things on my wish list they were already doing.”

He notes that using Green Halo’s software and rebranding it as Turner’s is still cheaper than hiring software developers to improve OWT. “The goal is to make our process more streamlined and cost-effective and they [Green Halo] can help us do that,” Dean says.
 

Documenting data

WasteCap Resource Solutions, a nonprofit organization based in Milwaukee, offers WasteCapTrace, an online waste and recycling tracking and documentation system designed specifically for LEED standards. WasteCap Executive Director Joe Liebau says the software grew in popularity when the state of Wisconsin was required to record project-specific and statewide reuse and recycling results, while also working toward a 50 percent diversion goal.

Wisconsin has been using WasteCapTrace for all state funded construction and demolition projects since Jan. 1, 2010.

Recycling figures for LEED projects are reported by weight or volume, although Liebau says most like WasteCap submit data in weight.

“You want to work with people who all have an understanding of LEED because folks might give you information that might not be correct and it could hurt you in the long run,” Liebau recommends.

Tracking materials that are repurposed on the job site also is valuable information for LEED certification, according to Robert Kidwell, communications manager at Houston-based Waste Management (WM).

WM introduced its software tool, DART (Diversion and Recycling Tracking) in 2011 and offers the technology free to its customers, Kidwell says. Thanks to DART, he says nontraditional C&D materials can now be considered in recycling data.

“Traditional plastics would not necessarily go to a traditional C&D recycling facility, but using DART, those material streams can be entered and accounted for,” Kidwell notes.

He continues, “The most beneficial tools are the ones that can be accessed collaboratively by contractors, waste providers and owners.”

Rodatos says Green Halo’s software provides interactive components that allow data to be uploaded from subcontractors, haulers and others involved in the C&D recycling process on a project.

Green Halo also granted another of Turner’s wishes with its software: the creation of a database of haulers and recycling facilities that contractors can reach out to when working on projects in a particular area. “We’re literally connecting the contractor to the facility,” describes Rodatos.
 

Increased involvement

While companies like Turner and WM are diligently using software to record materials being recycled from jobs, Rodatos says the nation is only tracking “a fraction of what is out there.”

When LEED v4 takes effect at the start of 2015, Deane says meeting prerequisites and earning points toward certification will be a more rigorous process. Software can provide templates to make the process smoother, according to Deane.

Kidwell says the need for WM’s DART software came from a desire to make C&D recycling reporting easier and more accessible, and it will continue to do so for LEED v4.

As for WasteCap, Liebau says the organization’s software is already operating in every U.S. state, however, his goal is to get even more people in the industry involved. While WasteCapTrace is set up for segregated streams of materials, Liebau says LEED v4 ensures contractors are using the system to its fullest potential.

Liebau says, “My goal is to increase C&D recycling across the country as quickly as possible and to have a system like this is the best way to get there.”

The author is associate editor of Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine and can be reached at mworkman@gie.net.