LEED project boundary in campus setting
Does each building on a campus have to have it's own separate, smaller LEED boundary or are buildings allowed to share the campus boundary? I am told it's the former, but that doesn't make sense to me. The reasoning is that the buildings can't double dip, that there is no overlap allowed between LPBs. But I thought that was one of the main reasons the AGMBC was developed. There are several places in the AGMBC that seem to support the idea that different buildings on campus can share the same site. Any suggestions are appreciated, but I really want someone to tell me a definitave yes or no!!





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Projects boundaries in campus and LED site lights with OC sensor
We are currently having a campus containing 11 buildings/structures out of which, 6 are going to be LEED certified. All the site lighting contains LED lights and Occupancy Sensors which should show great savings. We are planning on doing the Campus credits AGMBC Approach, but I was wondering in order to setup the LEED Boundary of each building. Can an area of the site/parking be assigned to a particular building (to be certified) in order to show the savings of the LED lights, even though these lights are fed from an electrical panel attached to a building that is not going to be certified but still on campus?
AGMBC released
USGBC has just released complete multiple buildings and campus guidance for LEED 2009 projects. More detail is on LEEDuser's AGMBC page.
Campus services and LEED project boundary
We are working on a new building in an existing industrial campus. The company produces it's own electricity and potable waterPotable water meets or exceeds EPA's drinking water quality standards and is approved for human consumption by the state or local authorities having jurisdiction; it may be supplied from wells or municipal water systems., but the building will have a boundary that is not the same as the the limits of the campus. Can those services be considered as on-site? I mean, they are owned and managed by the same owner as the rest of the campus. Any experience on this matter you can share will be greatly appreciated!
Alexia, to help answer this question I would immediately refer you to the MPR supplemental guidance document from USGBC. You might still have questions after reading this doc, but they might be more specific questions.
RE: LEED project boundary in campus setting
It may help others to know that since this question was posted GBCI has released part one of the revised AGMBC. A copy can be obtained on their website. https://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=7987
To answer the original question, yes each project must have a seperate boundary.
RE: LEED project boundary in campus setting
Daniel,
It's hard to give you a definitive "yes" or "no" since how you apply the AGMBC to define the LEED boundary depends on whether you're certifying one new building in an existing campus, certifying multiple new buildings at one time, or one-by-one to a set of standards, and also depends on the particular credit.
In general, you define a LEED boundary for each building, but certain credits can share the boundary of the campus. You'll need to look at the AGMBC guidelines for each credit to see where each building can reference areas that may be shared by other buildings. In some cases you have to allocate certain things like alternative vehicle spaces to individual buildings so that there's no "double dipping" but in other cases such as campus stormwater facilities or open space those may be shared by the different buildings.
To add to the confusion, the AGMBC was written for version 2 projects, and still hasn't been updated for 2009 rating systems, so there may be some contradictions between it and the current MPR Supplemental Guidance. If you run into specific issues on a particular credit, you may get more help from GBCI or LEEDUser for those specific questions.
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