International Projects - alternative compliance path

Hi Loic,

When determining the gross floor area for your project, please use the ASHRAE height of 2.3 meters or greater for headroom.

Please contact GBCI technical customer service at http://www.gbci.org/org-nav/contact/Contact-Us/Project-Certification-Que... if you have any further questions about which space types should be included in the gross floor area for your project.

Hello,

We are currently developing an office building near Paris, and our client is considering LEED as an important option for its project.

I have two questions concerning the gross floor area definition.

1/ Should I consider the US gross floor area definition since we are using a similar definition in France
(with one difference : a headroom height of 1.8 meters or greater)?

2/ If I have to use the US gross floor definition, should I consider a headroom height of 2.2m (LEED) or 2.3m (ASHRAE) ?

In the LEED document : “Rating System Selection Guidance, version 4, last update 1 September 2011”, the gross floor area is defined as :

"Gross Floor Area: (based on ASHRAE definition) Sum of the floor areas of the spaces within the building, including basements, mezzanine and intermediate-floored tiers, and penthouses with headroom height of 7.5 ft (2.2 meters) or greater. Measurements must be taken from the exterior faces of exterior walls OR from the centerline of walls separating buildings, OR (for LEED-CI certifying spaces) from the centerline of walls separating spaces. Excludes non-enclosed (or non-enclosable) roofed-over areas such as exterior covered walkways, porches, terraces or steps, roof overhangs, and similar features. Excludes air shafts, pipe trenches, and chimneys. Excludes floor area dedicated to the parking and circulation of motor vehicles. Note: while excluded features may not be part of the gross floor area, and therefore technically not part of the LEED project building, they may still be required to be part of the overall LEED project and subject to MPRs, prerequisites, and credits."

While it is defined in the ASHRAE 90.2007 as : ANSI / ASHRAE STANDARD 90.1-2007 :

"the sum of the floor areas of the spaces within the building, including basements, mezzanine and intermediate-floored tiers, and penthouses with headroom height of 2.3 meters or greater.
It is measured from the exterior faces of exterior walls or from the centerline of walls separating buildings, but excluding covered walkways, open roofed-over areas, porches and similar spaces, pipe trenches, exterior terraces or steps, chimney, roof overhangs, and similar features."

Thanks for your help !

At one stage we had to regenerate the reports - one in metric, and one in imperial. We then submitted the two Trane Trace reports.

If the LEED system did the conversion in the background back to imperial for the US-based invigilators, then no one would be disadvantaged.

Thanks for the clarification. It's a great step forward to be able to submit the supporting documents in metric units!

Hi everyone,

Maria is correct, projects are now allowed to submit supporting documentation in Metric units (plans, specifications, etc.). As mentioned previously, we have not been able to convert all of our LEED Online forms to Metric, therefore, we have created a conversion tool that should help teams using Metric convert any measurements to Imperial units for use in the forms.

We will be sure to clear up any confusing language in the rating systems.

Thanks!

Eric, it was exactly Sean who replied to our inquiry. Will be interesting to hear their comment on the rest of the documentation and submittals. Thanks!

Maria and Michael,
I sent an e-mail to Deon and Sean and hopefully they will clarify the issue for us. I asked them to post the answer back here.

One of my colleagues recently asked USGBC International the following question:

Considering the fact that the update introduces metric conversions for all current LEED measurements, is it already acceptable by reviewers to provide project documentation and drawings in metric system? Or it is still a subject to discussion with the respective reviewing team.

The response was as follows:

To answer your question, projects can now submit their documentation in Metric units. We understand that most projects outside of the U.S. use Metric, so we want to be as accommodating as possible to these project teams. Please note that we have not been able to convert all of our LEED Online forms to Metric, therefore, we have created a conversion tool that should help teams using Metric convert any measurements to Imperial units for use in the forms.

We interpret this to mean that the LEED On-line forms still need to be filled out with imperial measures but that metric drawings are now accepted.

Hi Eric, here is the response I got on the question regarding drawings and metric system:
"To answer your question, projects can now submit their documentation in Metric units. We understand that most projects outside of the U.S. use Metric, so we want to be as accommodating as possible to these project teams. Please note that we have not been able to convert all of our LEED Online forms to Metric, therefore, we have created a conversion tool that should help teams using Metric convert any measurements to Imperial units for use in the forms."
I believe we can submit the drawings with metric, but still convert the forms and calculations to imperial.

Additional information
I was re-reading the LEED 2009 for Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance With Alternative Compliance Paths For Projects Outside the U.S. and on page iii is the following:
"Please note that LEED Online is written in English and that all metrics used within LEED online are Imperial (IP) units. All projects are required to submit documentation in English, using Imperial units., Project teams that typically work in Metric (SI) units should use the ACP Conversion Tool to convert measurements to Imperial units."
Dear USGBC / GBCI please clarify the metric-imperial issue?

Maria,
I will jump for joy when metric units are accepted! I do see that some of the ACP forms (7 out of 49 credits) will accept both units; however I don't see an explicit statement allowing this in the website documentation and the November 1, 2011 LEED Reference Guide for Green Building Design and Construction Addenda, for example, still reference the following language "Units of Measurement Guidance
In order to facilitate certification review by U.S. based reviewers, it is necessary to submit pertinent aspects of review-related documentation in English and convert units to U.S. Standard (i.e. Imperial) units of measure, unless noted otherwise in the credit or prerequisite description. It is not necessary to translate every aspect of every construction document into English and imperial units, but only those necessary for evaluation of criteria. The project team should be prepared to provide additional translation(s) if requested by the reviewer in their preliminary review comments." from 11/3/2010. Perhaps it's just a case of not coordinating the official documents? Please share any official response you receive.
By the way did you see the requirements for EBOM energy benchmarking? It might be a really big problem for European projects....

Hi Jean,
I believe you stand correct: GBCI now accepts metric measures not only for the ACP but also for the drawings. I have inquired about this in an official e-mail.

Jean,
It seems like the USGBC has just provided a tool to help with the conversion process.
"Complete all your metric (SI) to imperial (IP) unit conversions for LEED documentation, with one consolidated tool." - http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=220

Petr, I would recommend posting your question to our IEQc2 forum. Thanks.

Dear Deon, dear all,

when following ACP EN 13779:2007 in CS.IEQp1 and CS.IEQc2 we do experience a very uncertain conditions given by this method in terms of IAQ – fresh air supply. Acc. to EN 13779:2007 it is possible to set classes from low to high IAQ (IDA 4 – IDA 1). This is then significantly implying the amount of fresh air needed.

Is this really flexible for us/investor to freely set the targeted class of IAQ or is it somehow more specified? I did not find any further specification what class should be taken.

What is the implication on the credit IEQc2 of the classes IDA 1-4 + 30%? Also very flexible then plus the credit makes no sense then if it is free to set IDA class of IAQ.

Please could somebody clarify this?

Thanks,
Petr

Hello Maria, and thank you for your question. Project teams are able to apply the LEED 2009 ACPs to their project even after their design review is complete. However, each credit will still only be given two rounds of review (preliminary and final) before an appeal is required. This means if a credit was reviewed without using the ACP during the preliminary design review phase and the ACP strategy was applied during the final design review phase the ACP strategy will only be reviewed once before an appeal is required.

We hope this resolves your issue. In the future please feel free to submit your questions on the certification and review process by going directly to http://www.gbci.org/contactus. This will allow you to submit your project information so GBCI can review your project when answering your inquiry and giving you a more detailed answer.

Dear Deon,
Is it possible to opt for ACP after preliminary design review feedback has been received. The ACP for int. project were issued after we have submitted for design review.
Any feedback is welcome. Thanks in advance!

Hello Bernadette, thank you for your question and your thoughts on the ACPs. The LEED 2009 ACPs may be used individually by project teams as they are needed. This means that projects may use the ACP for IEQp1 but not for EAp2 if teams wish. Therefore, the CEN Standard EN 15251 & EN 13779 may be used for the related credits in IEQ and ASHRAE 90.1-2007 may be used for the related credits in EA.

I appreciate the new possibilities given by the ACP for projects outside the U.S. Is it possible to use the EN 15251 and EN 13779 for the IEQ category and ASHRAE for EAp2 and c1? Then two regulations will be applied to one project. What is your opinion?