Existing Building Reuse--all bldgs or only those you renovate?

Nadav, the key to this is in the Reference Guide’s Implementation section 4 second paragraph: "For buildings that will have new uses or major renovations…” So there isn’t an absolute requirement for renovation, but at a minimum there has to be a change from a previous use to a new use. Eliot

Eliot is most likely to be correct about the Reference Guide, but we have been awarded this credit, via option 2, on a certified project just for the mere presence of existing buildings within the project boundary. Buildings that will remain just as they are. So GBCi may be interpreting it differently.

GIBc5 acknowledges that projects that preserve a portion or all of an existing building for reuse to earn the points for this credit. This does not include existing structures in their current use, but rather, as the Ref Guide says, includes existing buildings that will have new uses or major renovations with some portion preserved. An example of the former would be a residential conversion (formerly a residential unit transformed into a neighborhood law office). An example of the latter would be the new NPR headquarters in DC, which is a major renovation with structural portions of the former existing building preserved. If Ted’s project was awarded for existing structures in their current use, this was an accidental oversight by GBCI and will not be allowed in the future.

Hi Nadav, I'm sorry for the delay in replying. Do not include existing buildings that are remaining untouched in the credit calculations, either in the numerator or denominator. Buildings undergoing a use change (say, from residential to office) or construction are the basis of the credit. Of those buildings, save 20% of the surface area.