-
Achievable prerequisite
This prerequisite is highly achievable, and worth doing, because it will give you valuable information on the performance and efficiency of your operations.
It’s all about documentation
You’ll need to develop documentation that incorporates operational best practices to earn this prerequisite. The focus is on documenting standard operating procedures (SOPs) and best practices for building personnel and establishing a baseline approximation of building energy efficiency, major end-uses, and potential opportunities to reduce energy consumption.
You’ll need to provide the following documents:
- Building Operating PlanA general...
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.
5 Comments
Energy Star for a Manufacturing - Assembly Company
I'm working with a client that is a manufacturing/assembly company. Their building complex includes a 11,300 sq.ft. office space and a 50,000 warehouse and assembly area. The company produces products that are made up or component parts and the do bend some sheet metal.
On the surface, the manufacturing area does not qualify for the Energy Star tool. However, warehouses do qualify. Energy Star is the only way to earn additional energy efficiency credits.
We think that if we declared the entire manufacturing space a warehouse and then operate the facility with all process equipment unplugged for some period of time, we can determine the power load of the building and then use the Energy Star tool.
What do you think of this approach? What should the measurement time be for load of process equipment (we are thinking 24 hours of each operating scenario)? Are there other approaches that would allow us to use the Energy Star tool?
Jenny Carney replied Director, YRG sustainability Dec 14 2009
Robert - you're right about Energy Star not rating manufacturing spaces. But, the good news is that USGBC has established a path for these unusual building types to perform energy benchmarking to meet EAp2 and earn points under EAc1. If you haven't already, I'd recommend checking out the EAc1 EBOM2009 Case 2 Calculator, which can be downloaded from LEED Online under the Credit Resources for EAc1 (the Reference Guide offers further info about how to use it).
This is the tool that I've seen other building's with big manufacturing spaces use, and the number of points you'll be eligible for will depend on which of the benchmarking options you choose.
In my opinion, you wouldn't be allowed to declare the manufacturing space as a warehouse for the purposes of getting an Energy Star rating because this other benchmarking path already exists and is specifically to help teams benchmark manufacturing spaces. If you do want to try the other route though, I definitely recommend using a Credit Interpretation Request (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) to get an official opinion before proceeding.
Thank you
Hi Jenny,
Were back on the case after the holidays. I sincerely appreciate your response.
CIR Process
In Jenny's response to my initial post she wrote " If you do want to try the other route though, I definitely recommend using a Credit Interpretation Request (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) to get an official opinion before proceeding." I have researched the CIR process and the CIR submission screen asks that we attempt the credit before submitting the CIR. Is it possible to submit a CIR request prior to attempting the credit? Is there a fee for doing so?
Your informed opinions please.
Thanks,
Bob
Jenny Carney replied Director, YRG sustainability Jan 18 2010
Bob, you're correct. You generally need to register the project and then in LEED Online indicate that you are pursuing that credit (this just means marking it in LEED Online as attempted - you don't actually need to compile or submit any aspects of your LEED application at this stage). This will allow you to submit the 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 the online platform, and the fee for CIRs is $220.
If you haven't registered the project yet, there still may be a way to submit the CIR, but I'd recommend getting in touch with the GBCI help folks for the details on if and how it works.
And, in case you haven't checked out this portion of the GBCI web site yet, here's a link to the policy and fees information around CIRs: http://www.gbci.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=168
Please register to use the forum.