EAP2 case 2 Our project cannot use Portfolio Manager

Alicia, I don't have any personal experience with EBOM and conference centers, but the Oregon Convention Center, here in Portland, was the first convention center to be LEED EBOM certified, was later recertified at Silver, and is now in the process of pursuing recertification at Gold. They might be a good resource for your questions. The OCC's Sustainability web page (http://www.oregoncc.org/Sustainability/) includes contact information for their Sustainability Coordinator, Brittin Witzenburg.

Alicia - I think Michaels suggestion is a great one, and I would add that for buildings like convention centers where use levels can vary dramatically, an approach like the one you propose is the only logical way to tackle the problem. My experience is that the occupancy rate of a convention center can vary wildly from year to year, making comparisons over time (or even to a national average that might reflect a different use rate) useless without normalization. Fortunately EAp2 does allow for that kind of normalization, but the onus is on applicants to figure out the right methodology and explain it to GBCI. I can imagine a convention center coming up with a metric based on the energy per square foot per occupant hour or something similar. Challenges aplenty, but I think you will find open minds at GBCI on this topic. And of course, getting a formal interpretation for your project on the issue makes a lot of sense. . . Dan

Hi Alicia! you are not alone! There are a several convention/conference trying to pursue LEED EBOM. I suggest you contact Energy Star or Brittin as Michael mention since she manages the Energy Star working group for convention facilities. There you can get information and analyze past usage from others in order to help you fill out the EA Prerequisite 2 / Credit 1 Case 2 Calculator. Keep in mind, that the correct method to use the calculator for CCs is not standardized by GBCI and the reviewers as I know CCs that have taken different paths. You can use the various paths depending on what will give you the most points. Good Luck!

Alica-- Per Jeff's suggestion, there is definitely a convention facilities group in Energy Star that you should work to become a part of. Additionally, as part of a 2+ year building performance case study on the David L. Lawrence Convention Center here in Pittsburgh, we did a lot of benchmarking in the convention industry that may be of interest / use (energy, water, waste, etc.). The 50+ page report summary is available online if you want to get the "short" version: www.go-gba.org/dlcc. We will also be talking about the effort at Greenbuild this year.