Hot Tip

Include a timeframe for implementing each capital measure identified. A capital improvement plan is not considered complete if this information is missing.

Remember to clearly show the implementation date for each no and low-cost measure so the review team can verify that all items were completed during the performance period. It also helps to clearly explain your team’s definition of low-cost.

Don’t think that you can artificially pad your baseline case with extra watts per/sf for decorative lighting. In the ASHRAE Compliance form and in the LEED Online form, the decorative allowance for your baseline gets reduced to equal the decorative wattage you actually installed. Calculating the additional wattage allowance for your baseline is only to make sure that your have not installed too much decorative lighting.

It is not realistic to take 1 watt/sf for the entire room where decorative fixtures may be. Only claim the additional wattage around the area where your decorative fixtures are.

You can claim an additional 1 watt/sf of lighting power for decorative fixtures in your baseline, but this is only for areas where you actually have decorative fixtures.

International projects can still achieve this credit even if the local government agency has not designated it as a brownfield by pursuing the Option 1 compliance path by conducting your own ASTM E1903-97 Phase II Environmental Site Assessment.

Wood harvested from a project site is considered ineligible as a fuel source for non-renewable energy and doesn’t count under EAc2.

Energy produced by wood pellet stoves from untreated

If a system is owned and operated off-site by the project owner with the project receiving the energy generated, then the project may be able to count that renewable energy towards LEED EAc2.

If a PV vendor purchases and installs system on the project site, then the project does not have ‘ownership’ of the renewable system. To obtain LEED credit, the project must get into a ‘power purchase agreement’ where the building buys the electricity from the PV vendor at or lower than market price. The electricity has to flow into the building. The PV vendor may not retain the Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) of the system. If they are retaining the RECs then the LEED project can’t claim credit under EAc2.