Exclusion of supporting buildings from LEED boundary?

Thomas Tan

LEEDuser Basic Member

1 thumbs up

February 15, 2019

Dear all,

We have a project including one main building which is need to meet LEED standard. Beside this building, we have other supporting buildings such as an existing canteen, a new mechanical building which is the annexation attached to a retrofitted building. These buildings are not required LEED compliance.

- My question is that I can exclude these buildings out of the LEED boundary?

- If we have to keep these building as non-certifiable buildings, do they need to be compliant to LEED prerequisites and credits?

Best regards,

Thomas

Post a reply

Tristan Roberts

Representative

Vermont House of Representatives

LEEDuser Expert

7780 thumbs up

Sat, 02/16/2019 - 21:46

Thomas, from your description I'm not completely clear on to what extent the auxiliary buildings are integral to the basic function of the main building, and within the same construction scope, or if they are outside of the operational and/or construction scope. Bottom line, projects typically have discretion here. If you just want to certify the one building, only include it in your boundary. However, if it is difficult to exclude the other buildings from your boundary and LEED documentation because the function and/or construction is integral, just include them and make it all one LEED project.

Dionisio Franca

Director

Woonerf Inc.

LEEDuser Basic Member

31 thumbs up

Mon, 02/18/2019 - 00:36

Thomas, In addition to Tristan's comments, it is also important to notice that auxiliary structures with no FTE may be included or excluded to the LEED documentation, but if a structure has FTE and is a separate, the structure is certifiable and you would need to pay fees to include it in the certification scheme.

Thomas Tan

LEEDuser Basic Member

1 thumbs up

Mon, 02/18/2019 - 04:44

Thank you Tristan and Dionisio for your comments. The canteen building has its own FTEs and serve working people from the main building (office + manufacturing). This canteen is existing and not in the construction scope. The mechanical building is for HVAC and transformer, has major expansion work and include into the construction scope but having no FTE. The owner wants to keep these building's roofs and wants exclude these buildings out of the LEED certification. Will that be justifiable? Thanks again, Thomas

Dionisio Franca

Director

Woonerf Inc.

LEEDuser Basic Member

31 thumbs up

Mon, 02/25/2019 - 23:35

Thomas, Sorry for not answering this earlier. LEED v4 is supposed to have the MPR in its introduction, but the LEED 2009 MPR Supplemental Guidance revision 2 (September 2011) is still cited by reviewers: The LEED project boundary must include all contiguous land that is associated with and supports normal building operations for the LEED project building, including all land that was or will be disturbed for the purpose of undertaking the LEED project. 2. The LEED project boundary may not include land that is owned by a party other than that which owns the LEED project unless that land is associated with and supports normal building operations for the LEED project building. 3. LEED projects located on a campus must have project boundaries such that if all the buildings on campus become LEED certified, then 100% of the gross land area on the campus would be included within a LEED boundary. If this requirement is in conflict with MPR #7, Must Comply with Minimum Building Area to Site Area Ratio, then MPR #7 will take precedence. 4. Any given parcel of real property may only be attributed to a single LEED project building. 5. Gerrymandering of a LEED project boundary is prohibited: the boundary may not unreasonably exclude sections of land to create boundaries in unreasonable shapes for the sole purpose of complying with prerequisites or credits. Based on item 3 above, you might be expected to divide the kitchen and a part of the site that is closer to it and get this area outside or your "LEED site". You might as well explain the way you want to submit the documentation and its rationale and get the reviewers to accept it. Only USGBC/GBCI will be able to get a final saying on this, so I recommend you contact the LEED coach and get their opinion on your proposal. Do not forget to attach the LEED coach message to your submittal documentation.