I received a comment on a design phase review that since this is a core & shell building, the owner has to either include green cleaning in the lease, or agree to control the cleaning for both the base building and the tenant spaces. We can't do a lease agreement, since some tenants have already been signed, so I will ask the owner to control cleaning for the entire building, including tenant spaces.
The question is, how long must the green cleaning contract last? If I am obligating the owner to clean the entire site, I want the contract to be as short as possible, but I assume the LEED reviewers will not accept anything too short (like month-to-month or whatever). Is there any specific requirement in the credit as to how long this contract must be? Has anyone had any experience with a contract term for this credit? Thanks!
Glen Phillips
Sustainability ProfessionalBright Green
42 thumbs up
July 1, 2015 - 1:55 pm
If I had to choose an appropriate minimum duration (which is inconveniently absent from appendix 4 of the LEED 2009 BD+C Reference Guide - where it could and should be listed), 2 years sounds reasonable, and is the required duration for some other ongoing owner commitments such as green power purchases (EAc6).
Generally speaking, the lease agreements based approach is related to the TI fit-out, not operations, so while this exact example (and the reviewer response) is called out in the Reference Guide, it is a poor fit for this type of ongoing commitment. This is likely the reason that nobody defined a minimum length for this - at least as far as I could find with a cursory search.
Good luck!