By Michael Arny, President, Leonardo Academy

An important contribution to building sustainability and risk reduction is minimization of toxic materials in buildings. Facility managers have a great deal of control over the items that enter and leave the building, and responsible procurement practices can significantly reduce both the toxic materials present in the building and those that will eventually leave in the waste stream. Mercury in lamps is the example addressed in this article.

Mercury is a toxic element that can accumulate in the body and cause neurological problems, so it is valuable to bring as little as possible into our buildings. Most high efficiency lighting, including fluorescent and HID lamps, contains mercury.

Fluorescent lamps have traditionally had a tradeoff between long life and high efficiency, but this in no longer true. In recent years, a variety of fluorescent lamps have become available that not only offer a long life and low electric bills, but also contain minimal mercury. Improved manufacturing practices and better bulb design have allowed lamp manufacturers to decrease the mercury contents while improving the overall life and function of the lamps.

Building managers can do two important things to reduce that amount of mercury that goes into the environment: source reduction and recycling.

Note: Not all high-efficiency lamps contain mercury. LED lights are extremely high efficiency and mercury-free.

Source Reduction
The first action for facility mangers interested in minimizing mercury in the building’s lamps is source reduction. Source reduction reduces the environmental impacts created by the entire supply chain as well as in end of life disposal. 

Source reduction is very straight-forward—all you have to do is specify low mercury content lamps when purchasing.  The easiest way to do this is simply a maximum amount of mercury per lamp. While this reduces the per-bulb mercury content, it does not address the impacts of lamp life or light output. If more lamps are needed in the building due to low light or frequent replacement, the total mercury in the building would not be reduced by this purchasing plan.

A sophisticated mercury source reduction program needs to address all three factors affecting the amount of mercury brought into a building in lamps: mercury content, lamp life and light output.  Using a metric of mercury content per unit of light output over the lamp life (i.e., picograms per lumen hour) lets us compare all three of these factors. 

The information necessary to determine the mercury content of a lamp in picograms per lumen hours is average lamp life, light output at midlife, and milligrams of mercury content per lamp. It is recommended that you ask all potential suppliers for the life, light output and mercury content in milligrams for all the type of lamps they have to sell you so you can build the lowest mercury content purchasing plan for you building.

Both lamp life and light output figures have are routinely published in spec sheets, and are therefore easy to track down. Lamp mercury content has been more difficult to find, but lamp manufacturers and distributors are making it easier every day. Knowing the amount of toxic substances present in the items you purchase for your building not only offers reduced environmental impact, but also peace of mind.

Lamp manufacturers are making it easier to find mercury information on their products. For example, Osram Sylvania and Philips Lighting both have web-based calculators for determining the picograms per lumen hour of any combination of their lamps. Philips’ calculator also allows you to manually enter data for lamps from other manufacturers and include those values in your total-building calculations. I am sure other resources also exist that I am not aware of.

Links:
The Osram Sylvania Calculator
The Philips Calculator

Once the lamp information has been gathered, calculate the picograms of mercury per lumen hour for each type of lamp and put together a purchasing plan that minimizes the average mercury content for all lamps in your building. This will minimize the amount of mercury entering the building while creating an incentive for lamp manufacturers to continue reducing lamp mercury content.

Lamp Recycling
Facility mangers can further prevent toxic mercury from causing health and environmental problems by making sure all mercury-containing lamps are recycled after use, therefore preventing mercury-containing waste from entering the environment through landfills or incinerators. To have a dramatic impact, a lamp recycling program should accompany a mercury source reduction plan as earlier in this article.

I am frequently asked why recycling alone is doesn’t offer as significant environmental benefit when not combined with a source reduction program. This is because source reduction reduces environmental impacts throughout the entire lifecycle of lamps: (1) the mercury supply chain, (2) the manufacturing process, (3) the period of use of the lamp, and (4) lamp disposal. Recycling, on the other hand, only addresses the post-use part of the lamp’s lifecycle and is somewhat porous in its ability to protect the environment.

The best thing facility mangers can do for the environment as far as mercury in lamps is to combine an aggressive source reduction program with an aggressive recycling program.

Mercury Reduction in LEED for Existing Buildings
The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED-EB® rating system addresses lamp mercury content in the following ways:

• Materials and Resources Prerequisite 2.2 requires a plan for lamp mercury source reduction that results in average mercury content below 100 picograms of mercury per lumen hour. High efficiency non-mercury containing lamps (e.g., LEDs) can be included in the average picogram calculation.
• Energy and Atmosphere Credit 1 awards up to 10 points for building energy efficiency. High efficiency lighting is generally one of the lowest cost ways to increase building energy efficiency.
• Materials and Resources Credit 5.1-5.3 requires that at least 95% of the fluorescent lamps be collected and recycled.
• Materials and Resources Credit 6 provides a point for having and following a plan for lamp mercury source reduction that results in average mercury content under 80 picograms of mercury per lumen hour.

Please contact me if you have any questions about reducing the amount of mercury brought into you buildings in lamps.

Michael Arny
President, Leonardo Academy
michaelarny@leonardoacademy.org

About the Author:
Michael Arny is frequently called the "Father of LEED-EB." He founded the Leonardo Academy in 1997 and has guided the continued growth and accelerating impact of this organization. He has worked on energy and environmental issues his entire career. After earning a BS and MS in mechanical engineering and a BA in Psychology and Russian language at the University of Wisconsin, Michael was on the Wisconsin Public Service Commission staff for 14 years. He was the chair of the State of Wisconsin committee that developed the State of Wisconsin Greenhouse Gas emissions inventory; emission reduction cost analysis and the economic benefits analysis for emissions reductions. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Wisconsin and a LEED® Accredited Professional, was the Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) Committee from 2001-2005 and continues to serve on this committee.