Best Practices

Although it's not required for credit compliance, providing ambient and individual controls with variable lighting levels is recommended. Also, consider how individual lighting levels could supplement ambient lighting to provide each with variable lighting levels. 

Review opportunities for daylighting, light shelves, skylights, or light tubes. Along with these strategies, consider occupant controls related to each strategy, such as interior or exterior blinds, or changing the aperture on skylights or light tubes. Also consider assessing building orientation and space allocation. These are best practices, not credit requirements.

Employ a lighting designer to develop and review specialized lighting design considerations, such as glare and special-use lighting in art rooms, shops, or A/V presentation rooms.

Employ a lighting designer to develop and review specialized lighting design considerations, such as glare and special-use lighting in A/V presentation rooms.

When designing, consider lighting controllability in combination with your daylighting strategy. For example, if your project has a good design for daylight, you may want to provide task lighting on the interior walls instead of near windows, or daylight sensors in conjunction with an on-off switch for ambient lighting and task lighting for individuals. 

Providing individual lighting controllability supports energy efficiency, as the occupants can turn off the lighting system when leaving a space.

See the Operations and Maintenance section of the Reference Guide or LEED-EBOM for guidance on continued purchasing and replacement of Energy Star equipment after initial project specification. Work this guidance into procurement policies for future purchases. 

Purchase new equipment and appliances that are Energy Star labeled, to the greatest extent possible.  

Establish an Energy Star purchasing policy for all future equipment. Although a purchasing policy is not required to earn this credit, it can help ensure that the project continues efforts to achieve cost-effective energy conservation.

Involve the facilities manager, operations personnel or procurement staff in conversations about energy-efficient equipment. They should be able to provide a list of specified and existing equipment to help with your calculations.