LEED CI or not?

Melissa, we recently certified a project which consisted of part of a building which was occupied by the owner. The building consisted of 2 floors and the owner was occupying one floor, the other floor was rented out to a tenant. I think the scope of works is what really counts. What GBCI wants to avoid is that you are doing a full renovation but you only take into account the interior part and you exlcude the rest of the works.

That is correct, but ... The building had been build previously under a separate contract and the inside was left unfinished. A year later, they started a separate project on the second floor of this building. Key here is the clear separation between the construction of the building (different contract, different time) and the CI project.

Hi everyone. Thanks Melissa to post this for me. So can I use CI for my project or not? GBCI said I can certify each phase separately.

Thanks.

I think that summary is correct, Melissa. For the EBOM I would add that "not disturbing normal operations" would be part of the evaluation criteria when assessing the scope of works.

If you're interested this is the answer form GBCI:
Since the majority of the work occurring does not involve any site work and involves very limited construction to the façades or central mechanical or plumbing systems, but does include all the FF&E planned for the interior spaces that are the focus of each phase of work, LEED-CI v2009 would probably be the most appropriate rating system to address the design & construction work being done at the resort. LEED-CI is not only for use by tenants who rent. It is available to any owned or leased space regardless of use. In order to achieve certification for at least portions of the resort as soon as possible you could register each phase of your project as a separate LEED-CI project (before the October 31, 2016 v2009 registration deadline). Then as each phase is completed upload the documents into LEED Online and submit that phase (i.e. LEED-CI project) for review. Phases could be submitted and potentially certified shortly after construction was completed versus waiting until all phases of the work are complete and submitting the whole site for a single LEED-NC certification. Please note that the present deadline (a.k.a. ‘sunset date’) for submitting LEED v2009 projects for (at least) their initial round of review is June 2021, but that is quite a while after the last phase of construction (in 2018, if we understand correctly) in your project’s present schedule of work. Please also note that for work of each phase that is distributed throughout multiple structures in various parts of the resort, the resort would first have to qualify for LEED Interpretation 10203 (see below) to consider the entire resort ‘one building’, and then also meet conditions (a-f) on pages on 19-20 of the LEED v2009 MPR Supplemental Guidance (see below) to certify only one or more portions of a single, owner-occupied building as one LEED-CI project.

If you or the owner are also interested in demonstrating that the ongoing operations and maintenance of the resort are already exemplary and meet LEED requirements you can simultaneously register & seek certification under the LEED EBOM v2009 rating system. Please keep in mind that for Energy and Atmosphere Prerequisite 2 (EAp2) and Credit 1 (EAc1) there is a minimum performance period requirement of 1 year. You could potentially meet this requirement sooner by checking to see if you have historical energy use data on the project for the last 9 months that meets the prerequisite & credit requirements. You could then utilize the next 3 months (or so) for the balance of the EAp2/c1 minimum performance period and for the minimum required performance period for all other prerequisites and credits. It is also required that the project meet Minimum Program Requirements including MPR 5 which deals with occupancy (see the LEED v2009 MPR Supplemental Guidance cited below). Using the LEED EBOM v2009 rating system you could reference LEED Interpretation (LI) #10203 and treat the entire resort as an individual building project if it meets all the eligibility criteria listed in the LI.

I am including links below to some resources that will help you with the 2 discussed LEED routes above. I have also added a few other links that are good reference should you feel you want to try another LEED certification route.

· LEED Credit Library which allows you to select requirements by rating system - http://www.usgbc.org/credits

· LEED Interpretation 10203 allowing resorts to treat multiple buildings as a single building for LEED purposes as long as certain criteria are met- http://www.usgbc.org/leed-interpretations?keys=10203

· v2009 LEED MPR - http://www.usgbc.org/credits/commercial-interiors/v2009/minimum-program-...

· LEED v2009 MPR Supplemental Guidance http://www.usgbc.org/sites/default/files/Docs10131.pdf

· Campus Guidance document - http://www.usgbc.org/resources/campus-guidance

· Rating System Selection Guide - http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/Archive/General/Docs6667.pdf

· Certification Fee Guide - http://www.usgbc.org/cert-guide/fees