Hi,
We have assisted in many successful LEED certification processes for a huge (close to a square mile) university campus under LEED-NC v2 & 2.2. We had compiled packages for the general campus parking plan, which is very proactively green, that easily complied with SSc4.3 & 4.4, which worked well. We just got our first NC 2009 design review back and we were knocked down on every one of these items. Now we are trying to decide if we should create a Master Site, or several Master Sites.
Questions:
Is this an all or nothing proposition - ie, it true that any credit that is included in the Master Site program must be attained throughout the site to count on any given project, even if a specific LEED project meets the criteria alone?
It is going to be difficult to projecting future LEED projects, and to get into the plan detail required for SSc4.1, showing footprints and main entries. Also on this campus, there are a few areas that are too far from the perimeter to get adequate bus coverage, while other areas (most) have 2 to 20 busline options. Is it envisioned that you could amend the plan with new projects as they come up?
Finally, can one campus, under one administration, be carved into several Master Sites? Can that be done in stages and is there any reason that certain parts of the campus (ie sports fields) cannot be left out altogether ?
The campus is so large (close to a square mile) and varied, that we would not be able to acheive
David Sheridan
LEED SpecialistUSGBC
18 thumbs up
August 28, 2012 - 1:57 pm
Hi, Susan. I had to brush up on AGMBC with a colleague, and my responses may raise as many questions as they answer, but here goes:
If you devise a Master Site under the AGMBC individual projects within the MS can pursue credits that are achieved by the MS independently. See Page 12 of the AGMBC.
But if by achieving a credit for an individual project you detract from the credit in the MS you must revise the MS through the appeal process. See Page 13 of the AGMBC.
Also, you can add credits to an approved MS if the campus evolves such that it would qualify for those additional credits.
Your MS does not have to encompass the entire college campus. You can have multiple Master Sites. Be thoughtful, however, in the way you lay out LEED Project Boundaries, so that you do not appear to be gerrymandering. A good rule is to consider whether a particular part of a campus affects a particular individual building (I'm thinking of the athletic fields). If the project is not affected, no problem with excluding these fields. The areas selected to be Master Site(s) do not have to cover the entire college campus. If an area, like the sports fields, really has no affect on any of the individual LEED projects, then it does not have to be included in a Master Site.
Finally, and to summarize, you should look at a Master Site approval not as a once-and-done thing. As you achieve LEED certifications for buildings within the MS, keep track of whether you are changing the MS credits such that they cannot be used to support subsequent LEED projects within the same MS.
Sorry for the density, but it is a complex topic.
And thank you to my colleague Eric Anderson for his patience in explaining and re-explaining AGMBC to me.