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Let’s be honest—this one is no picnic
Even if your building is technically compliant, this credit is very difficult because the documentation requirements are extremely demanding. The only exception is projects that have previously earned a Daylight and Views credit through one of the other LEED rating systems—all you’ll need to do is provide your LEED scorecard verifying that you achieved the credit.
What types of projects should consider this credit?
If your building was designed to maximize daylight and views, it’s likely that your project is compliant, and you’ll have a better chance of documenting compliance—just be aware that the requirements are still burdensome. You can get a rough idea of whether your building is compliant by doing a walk-through with a light meter and spot-checking daylight...
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7 Comments
Regularly Occupied
Does "regularly occupied spacesRegularly occupied spaces are areas where workers are seated or standing as they work inside a building. In residential applications, these areas are all spaces except bathrooms, utility areas, and closets or other storage rooms. In schools, they are areas where students, teachers, or administrators are seated or standing as they work or study inside a building." exclude vacant tenant spaces? If a floor plan is designed but currently does not have a tenant, couldn't you included the square footage of any private offices on the perimeter in those vacant suites?
Jenny Carney replied Director, YRG sustainability Feb 22 2010
Chris,
In general, if your vacant space is less than 10% of the floor area, you can choose to include or exclude it from any given credit at your whimsy. If vacant areas are greater than 10% up to 50% of the floor area, you need to follow the guidelines for accounting for those spaces in the technical guidance document issued by USGBC - info about the maximum allowable vacancy and a link to the guidance document can be found here: http://www.usgbc.org/News/USGBCInTheNewsDetails.aspx?ID=4190
Looks like for this credit, vacant spaces "may be excluded." This hints that you can include them if you'd like, but doesn't explicitly seem to offer that. Assuming you can include them, I'd think you'd definitely need to wholly do one or the other, and not selectively pick the vacant perimeter offices to include and leave out other vacant spaces in the interior that would be regularly occupied if the building were full.
Furniture blocking light/views?
Does office furniture need to be included in these drawings? The cube setup in some shared offices (of which there are many) changes periodically. Some of the cube furniture reaches almost to the ceiling, blocking light and the view behind it. How do I account for this? Thanks!
David Posada replied Sustainability Manager, GBD Architects May 25 2010
I find there's some ambiguity in the LEED 2009 EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. Reference Guide on this issue. Page 410 shows a diagram with a "permananent partition" for the Toplighting part of the requirements, but doesn't address furniture or movable partitions specifically in the sections on daylighting.
On page 415 bottom it says "movable furniture and partitions are included in the scope of this credit. See Figure 14." but my impression is that this only affects views calculations, since that what the rest of the paragraph and Figure 14 address. That impression is reinforced by finding this same paragraph in the 2009 BD&C Reference Guide for the Views credit EQc8.2 on page 567, but I couldn't find anything in the 2009 BD&C EQc8.1 credit language that addressed furniture or non-permanent partitions in regards to Daylighting calculations.
In NC v2.2, EQc8.1, Daylight, they did specifically exclude partitions and never mentioned systems furnitureSystems furniture includes panel-based workstations comprising modular interconnecting panels, hang-on components, and drawer and filing components or a free-standing grouping of furniture items designed to work in concert., so we never included those in our daylight calcs and drawings for 2.2 projects. In NC 2.2 EQc8.2 Views, "moveable partitions and furniture are not included in the scope of this credit calculation." so we didn't include them there, either.
It's understandable that NC wouldn't address furniture and movable partitions since that is typically outside the work scope of new construction.
One might assume that EBOM would address systems furniture and movable partitions, since that's a part of space planning and O&M, but it's not clear if that's the intent of the credit or if only permanent partitons are the issue (page 413 middle).
The 4-14-2010 Addenda added "MRc2.2 Sustainable Purchasing - Furniture" to the list of Related Credits, but didn't say more than that. Hopefully others may have gotten reviewer feedback on this or a hint of an Addenda to come.
Dan Ackerstein replied Principal, Ackerstein Sustainability, LLC Jun 22 2010
I think this is an issue where the intent of the credit is paramount. EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. simply wants to understand if a given occupant (in their workspace) is enjoying the benefits of views/daylight. If furniture, movable partitions, etc... interferes with that in such a way as to eliminate the view or to reduce the amount of daylight provided, the space probably doesn't meet the intent, regardless of the original design or other factors. With views this may be a bit easier to ascertain that daylight, but both should keep the ultimate delivery of the benefit in mind.
Guest room in Hotels
In our hotel project the workspace of all permanent employees is in basement which does not meet the requirement of this credit. but if we include the guest rooms which having the more window area, we can achieve this credit. so my question is that can we include the guest areas as regularly occupied areas in this credit calculation or not?
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Jun 11 2010
Guest rooms would be considered regularly occupied, so they must be included in credit calculations, which sounds like it's to your advantage here.
In order to decide which steps to take to earn the credit, I recommend our checklist under the Getting It Done tab above (which is a paid membership feature).
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