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Reduce conventional commuting
This credit requires you to learn about and document your building occupants’ commuting habits and reduce the number of conventional commuting trips made to your building. There are a lot of points at stake, so it’s worth taking a close look at the credit and assessing your building.
In order to earn the credit, you must be able to document that your building’s occupants make at least 10% fewer conventional commuting trips than the LEED baseline. The baseline assumes that all occupants drive alone in a conventional vehicle to and from the building each day of the week.
If your building already meets the 10% credit threshold, the credit does not require you to make further improvements—but if you do so, you can earn more points (a lot more). For example, if your initial...
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14 Comments
Base line for commutes
Your getting it done sections says that "The baseline is calculated by assuming that each regular building occupant drives alone to and from the project building twice a day, five days a week, in a conventional vehicle.
Isn't the standard one round trip per day?
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Jan 12 2010
Yes it is. What are your thoughts on that?
Note that the baseline stipulates that the trip is "alone" and in a "conventional" vehicle. Carpooling and using efficient vehicles are two ways (among several others such as using public transit) to improve over the baseline.
clarify
I think what Robert is asking is whether LEED means "to and from the building once a day" (round trip), or "to and from the building twice a day" which means two round trips.
I would agree with Tristan - it should be one round trip, or two drives (to the building in the morning and away from the building at night) total.
Multi-Family Residential Application
At the beginning of the "Bird's Eye View" section the language used referencing the credit's intent states, in part, that its purpose is to "reduce the number of conventional commuting trips made to your building."
In reviewing the credit I can't find any requirement that the commuting be TO your building. The lack of such a requirement, at least in my opinion, leaves the possibility open for the commuting survey to document commuting practices FROM your building, as would be the case with residential applications.
Dan Ackerstein replied Principal, Ackerstein Sustainability, LLC Feb 15 2010
I agree with your conclusion Brittany. In the absence of formal guidance on applying SSc4 to residential buildings, it seems logical to assume that one's point of origin can have as much impact on transportation outcomes as one's destination, and should therefore be considered similarly for EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems. purposes. It's an interesting question though.
LEED User Template
Is it appropriate to use the supplied LEED User template for the survey, or is it intended to be a guideline only?
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Feb 17 2010
Nell, as a member of LEEDuser, you have our permission to use the survey template—and all other Doc Toolkit items we offer—on your project!
It is a guideline in the sense that you should make sure it fits the needs of your project. But it does meet the general credit requirements for a survey.
Quantify Hyrids
I am not finding a way to quantify a hybrid commute. The language indicates there is a value to commuting in a hybrid, but how is that measured?
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Feb 17 2010
Nell, I want to get clear about your question. Since you can use the survey to quantify how many commuters are using hybrids, are you wondering how a hybrid contributes to the credit calculations?
Nell Boyle replied Mar 17 2010
I beleive I found the anwser, a hybrid commute would count for zero emmissions, correct?
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Mar 17 2010
Yes, I think you're right. It would not count as a conventional trip, or in other words it counts as "0" in the conventional trip count.
Moving Target
Hi. I am a graduate student doing my thesis on the feasablity of making a building LEED compliant. The building is a university building with class rooms. There are 40 permanent staff in the building, but hundreds of students. Every semester the students change. How can I do a survey if the students change every semester? Thanks for any help.
Dan Ackerstein replied Principal, Ackerstein Sustainability, LLC Feb 22 2010
Mark - Flip over to the bottom of page 29 of the EBOMEBOM is an acronym for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance, one of the LEED 2009 rating sytems.-09 Reference Guide for some helpful guidance on surveying transportation modes in buildings with large transient populations, which a university classroom might indeed be. Also, in many cases, a campus-wide transportation study can be applied to all buildings on the campus - many university campuses perform just these types of studies each year to track transportation performance.
Mark Westover replied Feb 24 2010
Thank you.
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