NC 2009 SSc4.3: Alternative Transportation—Low-Emitting and Fuel-Efficient Vehicles

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11 Comments

Fabio Frescia Sustainable Engineer Indochine Engineer Ltd Vietnam Oct 28 2009

LEED in Vietnam

I have a question for you. As you know in Vietnam the motorbike is the most used vehicle. Can a motorbike be considered as a Low-emission vehicle (SS cr. 4.3)?
I have got some replies on this matter from other LEED expert and they all recognize that that bikes with internal combustion engines (as opposed to electric bikes) have no emission controls that a car would have, so while they may use less fuel than a car, they produce the most possible emissions (similar to a lawnmower engine). So if I do suggest to put electrical bike parking spots, would it be enough.
In particular for a project I am working for, the architect has already designed 332 spaces for motorbike and 349 for car. If I go for Opt.1 of this credit, I need to provide 17 parking spaces say for electrical bike and 17 parking spaces for low emitting car, or can I do the total (681) and provide 5% of 681 = 34 parking spaces for electrical bike?

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Joshua Radoff replied Principal, LEEDuser Primary Author, YRG sustainability Nov 05 2009

Your expert friend is correct. Motorbikes have notoriously bad emissions. Electric bike parking wont fly (although maybe you could provide electric bikes as 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). Generally these vehicles need to be road-ready. You could do electric scooter parking as an alternative.

Brittany McCollum Intern Viridian Jan 07 2010

ZEV List

I am looking for the ZEVZero-emission vehicles. list. Your link above does not work:

California Air Resources Board, Certified Vehicles List - This site provides a list of all vehicles certified by CARBThe California Air Resources Board, part of the state government, is charged with maintaining clean air. This agency is unique at the state level: California was the only state that had such an agency before the passage of the federal Clean Air Act, and was allowed to keep it..

Can you assist?

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Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Jan 07 2010

Brittany, sorry for the inconvenience. That link has been repaired.

Brittany McCollum replied Intern, Viridian Feb 09 2010

Link is still broken. I get a "File Not Found" notice on their website.

Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Feb 09 2010

Yikes, since they keep moving their links I am going to simplify things a bit here. The link in the Resources tab above now goes to the ZEV program, and you can check out their many resources from there.

Brittany McCollum Intern Viridian Feb 10 2010

ZEV list doesn't exist!

There is no such thing as a ZEVZero-emission vehicles. list!

Low Emitting Vehicles must be listed as a zero emission vehicle (ZEV) by the California Air Resource Board, but I wasn’t able to find any listing for these vehicles on their website at http://www.arb.ca.gov. After calling them, I have discovered that there is no easily referencable list. As such you have to know how to use their site to find this information. Here is the simplest description that I can offer:
- Go to: http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/onroad/cert/cert.php
- Only look at vehicles in the PC_LDT_MDV_MDEV column. These give a list of vehicles by model year. If you click on say the 2008 list (last modified 5-12-09), then you will look only at the last two digits just previous to the “.pdf”. So, if you look at the last bmw listing (bmw_pc_a0080249_0_z_e.pdf), you will see that these last two digits say ZE, this means it is a ZEV.
- I understand that this is incredibly difficult. I have requested that they simplify this process or provide an actual list. They will not do so. As such, I think the important thing to note is that most projects probably do not have any of these vehicles on site. These are likely all fully electric vehicles, based on my understanding of current available technologies.

Any chance USGBC can refer to data which doesn't require a Phd to find? OR that they could develop a list annually for our use?

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Babette Jee Feb 11 2010

Electric Car Charger

I understand that there is a J-1772 compliant outlet that only needs a
120v power supply. Will this be acceptable for Credit 4.3- Opt 2, Alternative Fuel Station?

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Ryan Gaylord Director CTG Energetics, Inc. Feb 12 2010

Electric Car Charger

Due to the fact that new fueling/charging technologies are continuously being developed and adopted by the marketplace, the requirements for LEED SSc4.3 Option 2 have been forced to evolve over time. The latest direction, of which I am aware, was provided through the NCv2.2 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 Ruling dated 3/10/2009, which states that 120V electrical outlets alone do not meet the intent of the credit, but 240V capabilities would also need to be provided. The intent is to offer alternatives that service a broader range of vehicles and charging requirements. The logic for this ruling might also be applied to the J-1772 type connectors in that those drivers that require quicker charge times might rely on a 240V charger, whereas other drivers may prefer to charge their vehicles overnight, therefore a 120V charger may be preferred.

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Jonathan Weiss Director of Sustainability KlingStubbins Mar 01 2010

Question from my client

My client, a federal agency, has asked whether anyone has experience with complaints after occupancy from employees about fairness. This project is one with very aggressive vehicle reduction strategies - over 30%of employees must find alternative methods of transportation - and they are concerned that employees will complain that this preferred space policy is unfair to those who cannot buy a newer vehicle that meets the Green Score of 40. I sent them the latest list that shows that the compliant list of vehicles is a broad range of costs, but they are still concerned.

Does anyone have experience with post-occupancy complaints about this? In this case, specifically, the issue is not that some people will have farther to walk from their "non-preferred" space, but that those who can't get a preferred space are quite likely to get no parking space at all.

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Ryan Gaylord replied Director, CTG Energetics, Inc. Mar 02 2010

This is an interesting concern that I have not come across on past projects. I would agree with your assessment that the selection of vehicles with a Green Score of at least 40 is broad and spans multiple cost ranges. If one third of employees must use alternative transporation, it sounds like parking would be an issue with or without preferred spaces for low emitting vehicles.

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