-
Commonly pursued credit—widely relevant
This credit encourages environmental best practices for building exterior maintenance. It’s among the most commonly pursued credits because of minimal cost impacts, and it’s relevant to all building sites, even those with zero lot lines.
Provided that key best practices are thoroughly incorporated into vendor contracts and standard operating procedure (SOPA standard operating procedure (SOP) manual can be used to document routine operations and maintenance practices, and to encourage use of standardized best practices.) language, this credit is not difficult to achieve. Many project teams already employ at least some compliant practices and can focus their...
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
Maintenance equipment powered by natural gas
Would equipment powered by natural gas qualify in lieu of electric-powered equipment, given emissions reduction over conventional gas powered equipment?
Shira Norman replied YRG sustainability Feb 15 2010
To meet the credit requirements, you must demonstrate that environmental best practices, such as the use of electric equipment or manual maintenance practices, are in place for at least 20% of the maintenance activities at the project building (and were implemented at least 20% of the time during the performance period).
If there is a specific type of equipment used at the project building that is not available with electric power, quantify the environmental benefits of using natural gas and demonstrate that other environmental best practices (including manual labor and low-decibal equipment) are in place at the project building. To see how to document such incremental adoption, you can check out the table on page 3 of the Building Exterior and Hardscape Management Plan Template in the Documentation Toolkit.
20% Adoption as a Minimum
I can't find anywhere that the USGBC stipulates 20% adoption as a minimum. Would you direct me to your source so that I can add such language to our Plan if it indeed is a USGBC mandate?
Shira Norman replied YRG sustainability Feb 15 2010
Incremental improvement (i.e., a minimum 20% adoption of environmental best practices) is discussed on pages 11-12 of the LEED Reference Guide for Green Buildings Operations & Maintenance. Make sure to add language around the extent to which best management practices are used at the project building and how implementation will be measured.
I think the confusion here
I think the confusion here comes from the version of LEED. EB OM '08 (v2) does not have that 20% threshold where GB OM '09 (v3) does.....(unless I have missed that in the v2 Ref. Guide..!)
Please register to use the forum.