-
You can lead a horse to water…
…But you can’t make it drink. In other words, bike racks and showers will probably not be enough to encourage biking in an area that’s unfriendly to bicyclists. If you’re thinking of pursuing this credit, first consider the realities of the neighborhood around your project. Is it realistic that building occupants will ride bicycles and make use of the bike racks and storage or the shower facilities? It’s important to consider whether the intent of this credit will bear out in reality or if your resources might be better allocated elsewhere.
There are some additional costs
This credit entails the costs of purchasing and installing the bike racks, as well as showers and changing facilities if you decide to provide those onsite. For smaller projects, the additional...
Step-by-step credit help
Got the gist of the LEED credit but not sure how to actually achieve it? LEEDuser gives step-by-step help. Members get:
- Checklists covering all the key action steps you'll need to earn the credit.
- Hot tips to give you shortcuts and avoid pitfalls.
- Cost tips to assess what a credit will actually cost, and how to make it affordable.
- Ideas for going beyond LEED with best practices.
- All checklists organized by project phase.
- On-the-fly suggestions on useful items from the Documentation Toolkit, Resources, and Credit Language.
-
Credit language straight from USGBC
Need to check up on the exact LEED credit language from the LEED Rating System on the fly? LEEDuser includes the verbatim language. Members get:
- Easy access to the official LEED credit language with just a couple of clicks.
- On the jobsite without your bulky LEED Reference Guide? Check up on the credit language details here.
- Credit language content is used by permission of the U.S. Green Building Council.
Your credit-by-credit reference library
Why waste time chasing down referenced standards and supporting resources when LEEDuser links you directly to the ones you need? LEEDuser has gathered all the best tools out there and organized them by credit for easy reference. Members get links to:
- Organizations that can give information or help on a credit.
- Standards or studies that are key reference points for credits and prerequisites.
- Articles that help explain important topics.
- Key documents or references for credit inputs.
- Software tools you can use to run calculations or simulations.
Documentation Toolkit
In the end, LEED is all about documentation. LEEDuser’s Documentation Toolkit saves you time and helps you avoid mistakes with:
- Calculators to help assess credit compliance.
- Tracking spreadsheets for materials purchases.
- Spreadsheets and forms to give to subs and other team members.
- Guidance documents on arcane LEED issues.
- Sample templates to help guide your narratives and LEED Online submissions.
- Examples of actual submissions from certified LEED projects.
18 Comments
Existing bike storage and showers
The project is a radiology suite within an existing urban hospital so, not exactly a tenant. The hospital has existing bicycle storage. Once we determine the required # of bicycles required for our project, do we need to add bicycle spaces to the existing spaces provided? Can we identify a number of the existing spaces for the radiology suite?
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Nov 20 2009
Peter, if this is a LEED-CI project, and only the radiology suite is in your scope, then you should be able to simply designate the appropriate number of existing spaces for the radiology suite, rather than adding new spaces.
I think that's all that LEED would require. This would probably be a good opportunity, though, to check how much demand there is for existing bicycle racks, and if they seem to be full much of the time, add some capacity for the radiology suite, so that designating those spots doesn't make things harder for other bicyclists.
Mara Baum replied Sustainability Coordinator, Anshen + Allen Architects Dec 08 2009
Yes, you can use the existing bike parking as long as it's within the required 200 yards from the building entry. However, the hospital be aware that if they have future LEED projects on site, they cannot take credit for the same bike parking spaces that you have for this LEED project -- no double dipping. The same applies for showers. Keep in mind that all FTEs who work in the space would need to have access to a shower somewhere in the facility, not just doctors.
Sherry Bonelli replied LEED Project Manager/Consultant, BudSprout LLC -- SucceedAtLEED.com Dec 09 2009
When you calculate the number of FTEs for this radiology suite, I don't think you'd have to account for transient visitors (aka patients) because they won't be taking bikes to the facility.
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Dec 17 2009
Sherry, great comment, but I think it's important to clarify.
The showering facility calc only includes FTEFull-time equivalent (FTE) represents a regular building occupant who spends 8 hours a day (40 hours a week) in the project building. Part-time or overtime occupants have FTE values based on their hours per day divided by 8 (or hours per week divided by 40). Transient Occupants can be reported as either daily totals or as part of the FTE. Residential occupancy should be estimated based on the number and size of units. Core and Shell projects should refer to the default occupancy table in the Reference Guide appendix. All occupant assumptions must be consistent across all credits in all categories.'s, such as staff, so transients like patients aren't counted there, anyway.
The bike rack count would need to account for transient visitors such as patients, and I wouldn't feel comfortable assuming that they can be excluded just because it's a radiology suite, without doing a CIRCredit Interpretation Ruling. Used by design team members experiencing difficulties in the application of a LEED prerequisite or credit to a project. Typically, difficulties arise when specific issues are not directly addressed by LEED information/guide through GBCI. There is some precedent for this, but you may have to demonstrate why it can be reasonably assumed that those visitors will not have a bike, and how they will be accommodated if they do.
How many showers & racks are needed?
I'm working on a LEED CI project. Our client is a one of four tenants in the building. There are existing bike racks in the common space and a shower in the tenant space.
My question is, is the number of showers and racks based on the building occupant count OR the tenant occupant count?
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Dec 17 2009
According to the official credit language, this credit is strictly about tenant occupants, not building occupants.
Sounds like you might already qualify, but just check that the facilities are within 200 yards of the main building entrance.
Adolfo Silva replied Principal, Ecovert Corporation Dec 17 2009
I've just done some investigative work and on page 96 of the LEED Canada CI v1.0, it states that "If the required bike rack capacity cannot be reserved for the specific tenant space, the quantity then must be based on the entire building population."
I assume a sign would be ok??
Thanks for the quick feedback, it is much appreciated!
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Dec 17 2009
Yes, exactly – a sign would be appropriate to designate that bike racks in a common space are reserved for a particular tenant space. If you can do that, you shouldn't need to worry about the capacity relative to the whole building.
On the other hand, if the other spaces in the building are also going for LEED-CI, you can't all claim the same space -- so you would need to see if there is enough capacity based on the entire building.
You're welcome!
Off site bicycle storage and shower facility
We are doing our own office as a CI upfit in a building. We will not have on-site bicycle storage and showers, but we have a YMCA 200 yards away, which should quality.
Do we need to provide a Y membership for all FTEs, or can we conduct a 100% survey (only 8 employees) and provide Y memberships for only those who will actually bicycle commute?
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Jul 28 2010
I would think that a documented company policy that Y memberships will be provided for any bicycle commuters would be sufficient (noting that the Y meets the 200-yard requirement), although the GBCI reviewer has the final word of course.
Or, in an office of eight people, one membership meets the requirement—so maybe just spring for one membership?
James Wilson replied Jul 28 2010
Thanks for the follow-up. Where does it specify that for an 8 person office one membership will meet the requirement? I have not found that language anywhere.
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Jul 28 2010
I'm simply going by the percentage calc from the credit language—see above. Make sense?
James Wilson replied Jul 28 2010
As per my understanding, the percentage calc pertains to the quantity of showers (# of users x 0.005) needed for the FTEs. The access to that # of showers should be for everyone.
So for the Y, we obviously have enough showers, but we would need for everyone to have access, or at least for those who will actually commute by bicycle.
Am I incorrect? - Thanks!
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Jul 28 2010
Doh.... I wasn't thinking about it in those terms. You're right.
The most bullet-proof way to meet the credit intent, then, is to get a membership for the whole staff. Maybe the Y has a group rate and this isn't so expensive, plus the staff might appreciate the perk. Access to the gym, etc.
If that is cost-prohibitive, then I would do as you suggest—survey the staff and see who is a bicycle commuter, or might be. I would be conservative, i.e. over-estimate the number. To best meet the intent of the credit, you should probably provide memberships for all of those people, plus documenting a policy whereby anyone else who wants access would get a membership. Again I would check on group rates here.
Given your size, I would also just do a show of hands or a survey and see if people would actually use it. Not all credits really make sense for all projects.
How does that sound?
James Wilson replied Jul 28 2010
Thanks Tristan. Exactly what I wanted to confirm.
I think the best route is to do what you suggest with people who will commute + optional future opt-in for anyone else who wishes to participate.
Peak users
Our bicycle storage is shared with other tenants in the building, so we need to determine FTEFull-time equivalent (FTE) represents a regular building occupant who spends 8 hours a day (40 hours a week) in the project building. Part-time or overtime occupants have FTE values based on their hours per day divided by 8 (or hours per week divided by 40). Transient Occupants can be reported as either daily totals or as part of the FTE. Residential occupancy should be estimated based on the number and size of units. Core and Shell projects should refer to the default occupancy table in the Reference Guide appendix. All occupant assumptions must be consistent across all credits in all categories. and peak transients for the entire building.
FTE and daily visitors can be estimated based on default occupancy counts found in the LEED reference guide, but how would I go about estimating peak visitors? The spaces outside of our project include office, restaurant, and retail. Thanks!
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Aug 29 2010
I'm not aware of a set process for this. If it's an existing project you can do some kind of survey or measurement of the other tenants. If not, you could look at similar spaces elsewhere, or perhaps talk with the future tenants. You simply have to come up with a defensible proces that's not an extreme amount of effort.
Please register to use the forum.