LEED for Healthcare in Second Public Comment Period

It's been a long time coming (since November 2007), but USGBC today opened a second public comment period for LEED for Healthcare!

Sixty-two credits and prerequisites, and almost all have changes, though most are minor and are about aligning LEED for Healthcare with the LEED 2009 rating systems. Some of the more significant ones are:

• SSc9.1: Connection to the Natural World—Places of Respite has been modified to allow interior spaces such as atria to contribute, rather than only outdoor areas.

• WEc4: Water Use Reduction has become three credits: Building Equipment, Cooling Towers, and Food Waste Systems.

• In IEQp2: Enviromental Tobacco Smoke (ETSEnvironmental tobacco smoke (ETS), or secondhand smoke, consists of airborne particles emitted from the burning end of cigarettes, pipes, and cigars, and is exhaled by smokers. These particles contain about 4,000 compounds, up to 50 of which are known to cause cancer.) Control, the allowed smoking distance from areas such as entrances has been increased to 50 feet, from 25 feet.

• A credit calling for views from inpatient units (excluding inpatient bedrooms) was removed.

Two of the more innovative credits were removed and placed into the LEED Pilot Credit Library, where project teams can test them and earn points for doing so via the Innnovation and Design credit. The credits removed were EAc7: Medical Process Equipment Efficiency, and MRc4.1: PBT Source  Reduction—Dioxins and Halogenated  Compounds. (The links I gave here will take you to those LEED Pilot Credits within LEEDuser—we've provided all the requirements and a forum for easy reference.

Some of the unique features the current draft retained include a prerequisite (as well as a credit) calling for an integrated designBuilding or interior design in which different components, such as the building envelope, window placement and glazings, mechanical systems, furniture, and surface finishes are considered as part of building design, especially to achieve goals related to sustainability. process, credits for reducing mercury and other heavy metals in materials, and a credit for reducing contaminants from combustion.

The second public comment period is open from April 19th to May 18. The draft rating system, a summary of revisions, a comment form, and other documents are available on USGBC’s rating systems drafts webpage. If the second public comment period leads to further substantive changes, a third comment period will ensue. The rating system will eventually be voted on by USGBC members.