Some problems we faced in the progress of LEED consulting in China
1, In China, most designers are not willing to change their way of design, nor are they used to being told who to design.
2, I think USGBC should accept the calculation methods that are different from those applied in the US.
3,Modified: Suggest USGBC collect realted meteorological data of China for the use of LEED certification.
4,If a Chinese water treatment company treats the water and provides a test report to show its quality meets the LEED requirement of this credit, I suggest this report should be accepted by USGBC.
5,It will be great if the Reference Guide gives out more detailed guidance and instruction about how to decide the value a certain coefficient, such as the WEC1.
5 Comments
To try and answer your
To try and answer your points.
1) This is a problem in the US and many other countries. People resist change. USGBC goal with LEED is to be market changing. To encourage people to change what typical business means.
2) Sometimes this happens. When submitting for the credit an explanation should be added to explain why the different calculation is just as good as the US version. They may respond with a request for additional information. Converting the calculations to metric units would not be a problem.
3) I'm not sure on this. What credit are you referring to? Like SSc1 refers to the 100-year flood plain. I'm sure local weather data can be used to calculate the elevation of the 100-year flood plain for your site.
4) It's possible that they will accept this if the water is treated on site. Since this is not a typical location expect the reviewer to ask a few questions to verify water quality and documentation.
5) Read thru here and see if your question is answered.
http://www.leeduser.com/credit/NC-v2.2/WEc1.1-1.2
Bill and others we are currently implementing LEED on several projects in China using all the US Standards is difficult but not at all impossible. Its often said but thse that do'n't really know that US LEED is not applicable in China but we disagree and think it can be applied.
ASHRAE90.1 energy code is certainly more stringent but its performanced based so apart from having to learn and understand its many requirements it is easly applied if explained properly and implemented by competent engineers.
A more difficult aspect is the compliance with US standards for carpets, paints, sealants etc low VOC testing (which is not done in China on China local products). Green materials are a new concept as they were in the US 10-15 years ago so that industry has not yet built up to support the industry locally yet.
Finally and its maybe just more notcible in China is that the contractors all find it very difficult to complete documentation or follow the requirements on site and they can and will sign anything if you tell them its needed so unless you are sure its all happening on site (e.g the waste recycling) I wouldn't trust the sign offs. But that is a problem for all LEED projects even outside China.
The good news is that generally at at a high level in government China is pushing green building however its really a necessity as the pace of growth and urbaniation in China cannot be sustained without looking for better ways to build and produce electricity. Its not a nice idea its a matter of survival and China in that respects seems to be a lot more aware of this than others in the west would believe.
What we are doing is just making buildings a little less unsustainble by completing these LEED projects a much bigger push is required to focus on true sustainbility that's our next challenge
LEED in China
Just curious about a few things.
1) Why three posts in a row today from 3 people about the challenges of using LEED in China? Did something happen to drive this sudden interest?
2) It seems like these posts are suggestions to try and change LEED for use in China. If so they are misdirected. This website has no influence in changine LEED. You should direct your comments towards www.usgbc.org. And it may be difficult. They usually only accept comments for 45 days out of every 3 years regarding suggested changes to LEED. I submitted 10 suggested changes during the LEED-2009 review process and was not successful in changing LEED on any of them.
3) USGBC is the UNITED STATES Green Building Council. I'm not surprised a system (LEED) designed for use in the US has issues when applied to other countries. I have heard of other countries adopting the LEED rating system for use in their countries. There's the Indian Green Building Council, Canadian Green Building Council, Green Building Council Brazil, and about a dozen others. If your group is so passionate about this you could start the China Green Building Council. Then make a LEED-China rating system that works in China.
4) I agree the Refernce Guide needs more detailed guidance and instruction about many credits. That is why some entrepreneurs started this website to help fill a need. If you have a question about WEc1 try looking it up on this site. If that doesn't help then ask for help. Someone usually responds.
The flurry of posts on LEED in China is great, in my opinion.
For better or worse, the U.S. version of LEED is being applied in dozens of different countries, often with resulting difficulties. We're happy to have this kind of discussion on the LEEDuser forum.
I do agree with Bill and suggest that it would be great if our forum participants from China could share some thoughts on how they've successfully navigate the difficulties of LEED in China—rather than focusing on ways in which LEED should change.
I have heard from several sources that USGBC is working on an international-friendly version of LEED. I expect we'll see more on that later this year.
I am always curious how people are making LEED work in other countries. They can add very useful information to the forums. There's always more than one person having to deal with a problem. Learning what others did is helpful.
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