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New or existing hardscapes?
This credit is fairly straightforward and easy to achieve if you are newly creating all the hardscapes. You may comply by applying prescriptive design measures outlined by LEED to 50% of your site’s hardscape, or by covering 50% of your project's parking spaces.
There can be added costs and labor if your project needs to modify existing hardscapes to meet the prescriptive goals of the credit: for example, taking out a black asphalt parking lot to install a more reflective material.
When dealing with existing hardscapes, it may be more cost-effective to shade areas with trees or landscape features than to replace them. This credit can be unattainable if your project’s hardscapes do not already comply and you do not have control over the design of hardscapes.
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19 Comments
Bus drop off zone
Hi,
we have an industrial project in Veracruz Mexico.
All the parking lot is covered and the company is providing a bus service for the employees.
My question is, if the bus drop off zone, or spaces also have to be covered?
The bus just remain in site from 15 to 20 minutes.
Thank you.
Rosamaria, there is no requirement in LEED for parking or a drop-off zone to be covered, so I would say no.
The option under SSc7.1 is for 50% of spaces to be covered, so I would say you're fine either way.
Is your question coming because you are aiming for 100%? What spaces are you referring to in your question?
That's right Tristan! we are aiming for 100% covered spaces.
So far we have all employees, staff, visitor parking spaces covered. But we are wondering if the bus drop off zone will affect pursuing 100% covered spaces. There are like 10 spaces for buses.
Can I come work for you Rosamaria?! My car gets so hot out in the open during the summer!
I'm researching some property that I would like to adhere to as many LEED guidelines as possible. The cost analysis is a bear, but I guess that comes with the territory when combining environmental design and choosing the right property for sale. Is there any advantage to increase from 50% to say 75% or 100%?
In gaining a better grasp on LEED guidelines, there is a delicate balance between budget and adhering to guidelines. Can it be done? Of course, but to do so optimally takes a lot of work. I'm grateful for these forums, since they help to find that point. If I ever find a property for sale that I would like to buy, I'm confident that I can make eco-friendly renovations and stick to a budget. Thanks for the great info!
Expanding the LEED Boundary to Include Existing Parking Garage
We are building a clinical expansion to an existing hospital campus. The parking that will be used for this new building will be an already existing parking garage adjacent to the new structure that we will not be affecting during the construction process. Are we allowed to include this garage in the LEED boundary in order to receive credit for parking spaces being under cover? If we do, will the garage also have to be included in the energy model for EAc1? Will it have to be included in SSc8?
Thank you very much for your assistance.
Pablo, for a better understanding of this issue, please review the LEED Minimum Program Requirements supplemental guidance document. There is discussion there of setting the LEED boundary with respect to site features, and how to count them for selected credits. Please post back here with follow-up questions.
SS Credit 7.1 - Calculating shade
Does anyone have an easy way to calculate the area shaded by trees for this credit? I have the anticipated height and canopy diameter of the trees at 5-years. Thanks!
Kristine, I am looking for "when" this calculation should be preformed. I know that I have read the answer somewhere, I just can't remember where. When I was searching different phrases in LEEDuser I found your comment. Are you really working in version 2.2? You may have better luck in version 2009. sara
Kristine and Sara - the credit calculations in the NC version 2.2 Reference Guide state that shade coverage "shall be calculated at 10am, noon, and 3 pm. The arithmetic mean of these three values will be used as the effective shaded area." The v2.2 credit doesn't specify the date for which to calculate these areas, but my understanding is to use the summer solstice, June 21st. (That's made clear in the v2009 credit language.)
As for a method to calculate the area, some projects have used site photos taken on June 21st, but in your case it may be easiest to create a simple SketchUp model with a tree or solid circle sized to represent the tree canopy. Then use the Shading view and set the date and times in the shade options palette and draw a polygon on the ground as an area take-off of the shaded area. Hope that helps.
FYI: The third version of the LEED-NC v2.2. Reference Guide states on page 92: “Shade coverage shall be calculated at 10 a.m., 12 noon, and 3 p.m. on the summer solstice.” Addition of the date was an errata item for page 90 of the First Edition of the Reference Guide. It was codified into the second and third editions.
Minimum Parking Spaces Under Cover for 7.1 and an EP Point
Does LEED require a minimum amount of parking spaces to be undercover to achieve this credit. The project has no current parking, and after the renovation and addition, there will be a one-car garage. If I am reading it correctly, according to LEED we would qualify for 7.1 Option 2 with 50% of spaces under cover and obtain an exemplary performanceIn LEED, certain credits have established thresholds beyond basic credit achievement. Meeting these thresholds can earn additional points through Innovation in Design (ID) or Innovation in Operations (IO) points. As a general rule of thumb, ID credits for exemplary performance are awarded for doubling the credit requirements and/or achieving the next incremental percentage threshold. However, this rule varies on a case by case basis, so check the credit requirements. by having 100% of spaces under cover. Is that correct?
I would agree with your assessment. Keep in mind that any roof used to shade or cover parking must have an SRIThe solar reflectance index (SRI) is a measure of a material's ability to reject solar heat, as shown by a small temperature rise. Standard black (reflectance 0.05, emittance 0.90) is 0 and standard white (reflectance 0.80, emittance 0.90) is 100. For example, a standard black surface has a temperature rise of 90_F (50_C) in full sun, and a standard white surface has a temperature rise of 14.6_F (8.1_C). Once the maximum temperature rise of a given material has been computed, the SRI can be calculated by interpolating between the values for white and black. Materials with the highest SRI values are the coolest choices for paving. Because of the way SRI is defined, particularly hot materials can even take slightly negative values, and particularly cool materials can even exceed 100. of at least 29.
Word of Caution Denied my strategy
We combined parking garage and planted trees to provide shady parking spaces - as well as removed 25% of the old concrete parking lot- dramatically reducing the heat island effectHeat island effect refers to the absorption of heat by hardscapes, such as dark, nonreflective pavement and buildings, and its radiation to surrounding areas. Particularly in urban areas, other sources may include vehicle exhaust, air-conditioners, and street equipment; reduced airflow from tall buildings and narrow streets exacerbates the effect. for my project. We were denied this credit. Here is what they said:
A narrative response has been provided to appeal the preliminary ruling which denied the achievement of this credit. However, without prior approval to combine strategies from both options of this credit (by means of 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 Ruling or otherwise), the approach to earning this credit by fulfilling the requirements for one or the other option is the only means to earn this credit.
During the writing of this credit there was no mention of an either/or and during Faculty Training we agreed that we could combing trees and cover...ergh.
Sue, I'm wondering how you proposed to combine Options 1 and 2? They seem to me like apples and oranges—no totally clear way to combine them, which is probably why GBCI didn't allow it. Also, credits where "or" is allowed typically state this.
I do sympthaize since the project seemed to do the right thing.
I don't think the reviewer should be suggesting or requring you to use 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 process in a review comment.
Project Boundary
We have a hotel project which has designated parking on the fourth level of a shared parking garage. These spaces were built prior to the hotel for the hotel’s use, so we would like to take credit for them under SS Credit 7.1, but how can we include them in the LEED site boundary?
You can't include just that floor of parking unless you include the whole building and all that it implies in your LEED boundary. As much as it would be nice to take credit for this, LEED doesn't allow "gerrymandering" of this sort. Other buildings that use the same parking could also take credit for it if that were the case, and that would not make so much sense. (Although I have to admit it's also not totally crazy in this case.)
Project Boundary
We have a fire station project in which the city is requiring us to repave a portion of the public streets surrounding the property. Are we required to include this area in our project boundary, and the total overall hard scape area?
My understanding is that because the public streets surrounding the property are outside the property line of the project building, the project site boundary will not have to include these streets and thus they will not have to be included in this credit.
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