We were recently denied a credit in the Final Review Phase on the basis of information that was presented in the Preliminary Review Phase that GBCI had no comments upon. This seems like an inconsistent application of judgment, and we are wondering what, if any recourse we may have in this matter.
The credit in question is IEQc7.2-Thermal Comfort Survey. The Owner saw no value in completing a Thermal Comfort Survey on the HVAC systems until all installation issues had been resolved and the systems were functioning as designed. Due to numerous contractor and parts backorder issues, the systems were not functioning as designed until well after the 18 month mark, although the Owner did respond to and address user complaints to the best of their ability during this time period. We noted this under the "Additional Circumstances" box in our credit, and provided action items from the Cx log as backup.
GBCI had no comments regarding the "Additional Circumstances", and we interpreted their lack of comment as an acceptance of our extenuating circumstances. This credit was required to earn the 50 points targeted for LEED Silver, and as we were denied some other credits upon review, the Owner opted to spend additional money to pursue additional credits to get back to 50 to meet their voluntary commitment for all their projects to earn LEED Silver.
We don't feel that GBCI is unjustified in believing our explanation to be unworthy of the credit; however we do consider it unfair to our client that is highly committed to sustainability for GBCI to have not commented upon it during the Preliminary Review Phase. Thoughts?
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5867 thumbs up
May 17, 2016 - 5:45 pm
Reviewers are not allowed to bring something up in the final review if they missed it in the preliminary review. Contact GBCI and let them know. If it is as you say then they should reverse the denial without an appeal.
Nita Christopher
Associate / ArchitectRATIO
3 thumbs up
May 18, 2016 - 9:45 am
Thanks, Marcus. Would there happen to be a specific section of the Certification Standard that I could point to?
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5867 thumbs up
May 18, 2016 - 10:10 am
I don't know that this is published. It might be in a LEED Interpretation but maybe not. This has been a longstanding rule for the reviewers.
Nita Christopher
Associate / ArchitectRATIO
3 thumbs up
May 18, 2016 - 12:52 pm
I called GBCI, and their advice was to contact the review team; however, we would be contacting the same review team that took the action to deny the credit.
Is there any way to get in touch with the entity that manages the review teams?
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5867 thumbs up
May 18, 2016 - 1:00 pm
The best way to contact them is to go online to the contact page on USGBC's web site and post your issue as a certification question.
Micah Silvey
USGBC2 thumbs up
May 20, 2016 - 10:35 am
Hello Bill, Marcus is correct that our policy is not to raise new issues during the final review. The reason for this is that it doesn’t allow a team to adequately respond and address the issues without an appeal. We typically handle these with an educational note for future projects. The exception is when new information submitted for the final review highlights an issue with the credit. In the case of your project, since the issue with IEQc7.2 was not raised in the preliminary review even though you described it clearly as a special circumstance, we’ve corrected our review and instead provided a note for future project. Thanks!