LEED is Changing, Was Your Voice Heard?

As reprographers change their businesses to become more green, we are continually reviewing our business practices and how they reflect upon the success of our customers. The beacon of driving change is the USGBC's LEED program. Because reprographics isn't necessarily part of the 'building products' classification, there are no default credits available to contractors using recycled bond or utilizing ReproMAX DFS.

Many times, when we talk about LEED and its affect on our side of the industry, I encounter the question, "Why doesn't recycled bond/ReproMAX DFS count toward LEED accreditation?" My answer is, most often, "...because we haven't pressed USGBC hard enough to make it so." Other product manufacturers and materials/service providers, I'm certain, have beat on the USGBC door long enough to make it obvious why their service/material should make the accreditaion list, maybe its time for us to take that route as well. Isn't saving thousands of trees and hundreds of tons in paper part of the "reduce, reuse, recycle" ideology? I certainly think it is.

Member participation, whether on committees, working groups, or during the public comment periods, will ensure that the LEED version that goes to member ballot in October sets a new bar.
--USGBC email

That's pretty powerful. I urge you to become part of your local USGBC chapter and let your voice be heard. Remember that, as part of ReproMAX, you're part of the largest single network of reprographic companies in the World. Invoke that position and speak with authority, because if none of us champion our own cause, no one else will!