We are working on a LEED Schools 2009 project and have had several credits come back with this comment as part of the Construction Preliminary Review: "This credit was previously denied after receiving two full rounds of review during the Design Preliminary and Design Final Review phases. Since there were outstanding issues with the submitted strategy after two full rounds of review, please note that an appeal will be necessary if the project wishes to resubmit this credit and pursue credit compliance." This seems to go against what is trying to be achieved by the Split Review Certification process. The team submitted the required information as part of the initial Construction Phase application in response to the Design Final Review comments, but the information was not reviewed! Now we have to pay for and go through an appeal, even though we have not yet submitted our response to the Construction Preliminary Review? Am I missing something here. Has anyone experienced something like this and how should I proceed?
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Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5907 thumbs up
June 10, 2014 - 11:40 am
Each prerequisite and credit gets two rounds of reviews. If denied after two rounds of review then an appeal is required unless you can demonstrate that the reviewer was in error. This applies to both a split review and a combined. This policy has been in place almost since the beginning. The purpose of a split review is to break up the documentation and provide earlier feedback to the project.
There is one exception to the two reviews policy - if something changed during construction that would result in having to modify the LEED documentation for a design credit already earned then you are supposed to resubmit that credit for a third review. This does not allow you to correct issues that were denied after two reviews however.
You should appeal any credits you need to before you submit your responses to the construction preliminary review.
Tim Crowley
LEED AP / Founderwww.BCdesignbuild.com
60 thumbs up
June 10, 2014 - 12:19 pm
Marcus - Thank you for the excellent information. You mentioned that we should appeal any credits that we need to before we submit our responses to the construction preliminary review. Won't this mess up our timeline? We were planning on applying for a "Project Review Extension Request" anyway. Should we apply for the extension and let them know as part of that request that we are planning on appealing some of the credits before we respond to the construction preliminary review?
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5907 thumbs up
June 10, 2014 - 12:49 pm
It would correct your timeline.
Yes apply for the extension and appeal first. This may not be absolutely necessary, it depends on the credits being appealed. For example EAp2 must be earned before EAc6 can be evaluated.
Tim Crowley
LEED AP / Founderwww.BCdesignbuild.com
60 thumbs up
June 10, 2014 - 2:23 pm
We are considering an appeal of the following credits SSc8: Light Pollution Reduction, SSc9:Site Master Plan, and WEc3: Waste Use Reduction. However, as you mentioned, two of these, SSc8 and WEc3 are inter-linked to prerequisites that still have outstanding issues. So, I think we would need to resolve prerequisite EAp2 with our construction preliminary review response before we could appeal SSc8. And likewise, I think we would need to resolve prerequisite WEp1 through our construction preliminary review response before we could appeal WEc3. Am I thinking of the process correctly?
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5907 thumbs up
June 10, 2014 - 2:55 pm
It sounds like it. In order to figure out the right order you look at the relationships between the credits.
RETIRED
LEEDuser Expert
623 thumbs up
June 10, 2014 - 3:23 pm
Tim - I've never had to appeal but I'm not positive you can resolve EAp2 and WEp1 through the construction preliminary application - if they've already had two full design reviews. You might have to appeal those also - unless as Marcus points out there have been changes during construction that impact those prerequisites.
Tim Crowley
LEED AP / Founderwww.BCdesignbuild.com
60 thumbs up
June 10, 2014 - 3:54 pm
Michelle, The Construction Preliminary Review Report states for EAp2: Minimum Energy Performance has been "Awarded". It goes on to say that "Sufficient information has been provided to address most of the issues raised in the Preliminary Review. However six issues remain." Then there is much detail about those six issues with the closing statements showing how the calculations where revised by the reviewer leading to the last sentence stating that "This leads to a total percentage improvement of 19.5% which meets the prerequisite requirements." Likewise the WEp1: Water Use Reduction - 20% Reduction is noted as "Awarded" but goes on to explain why the reviewer came to the conclusion that the reduction was 28% and not the 30% our team came up with. So I guess I would need to appeal both of these prerequisite findings if we disagree with the calculations which are affecting our point total in the inter-linked SSc8 and WEc3 credits, right?
RETIRED
LEEDuser Expert
623 thumbs up
June 10, 2014 - 4:23 pm
As I stated, I haven't ever had to appeal but what I was trying to share was that you can't deal with addressing these issues in the Construction Preliminary Review. You or the Project Team Administrator accepted the Final Design Review results and took these prerequisites and points for the associated credits as they were presented. Ideally you should have appealed then instead. Consider reviewing the info on Appeals in the LEED Certification Policy Manual - http://www.usgbc.org/resources/leed-certification-policy-manual.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5907 thumbs up
June 10, 2014 - 4:09 pm
The prerequisites were awarded so in order to change the number of points awarded you would need to appeal the credits. This is a technicality since the prerequisites were awarded but the calculations that determine the credit points are part of the prerequisite. If you appeal the prerequisites the credits are automatically reviewed as part of that process. You can't address these issues in the C Prelim round as they will require an appeal. If exterior lighting and water use reduction are energy saving strategies you would want to resolve EAp2 first and then the other credits. You can do it all at once but make absolutely sure that there is consistency between the inputs used in the affected credits.