LEED Committment

There are no LEED police. As the system now exists no one follows up on anything except the energy and water performance, and even with that they would not remove the plaque for poor performance relative to what was claimed.

It only matters as it affects your own personal code of honoring your commitments.

In your example if I was the owner I would ask why they are not being used and seek a way to incentivize their use. Simply removing them means that all they were really interested in was earning a point for a plaque and do not understand or embrace the underlying intent behind it. Do they want a green building or a plaque that says they are? Can one build a green building and then operate it a way that is not green? If so is it a green building anymore? IMO LEED certification should require periodic re-certification throughout the operations phase. Unfortunately this kind of point-based system that does not continue into operations can all too often lead to a kind of morally bankrupt thinking, hypothetically speaking of course.

You are supposed to resubmit any design credits that are affected by changes during construction. I think you actually have to check a box that nothing changed during construction for the previously anticipated design credits provisionally awarded during the design review phases. So yes you get a third review associated with changes that occurred during construction, but not related to fixing something to avoid an appeal.

Kerry, there is a commitment - the application is being submitted with the statement that the information is true. If that commitment wasn't being honored, then that is a different issue.

For your example with the parking lot striping this would be covered by re-submitting the new design during construction review as Marcus had pointed out, so this isn't the same thing as changing things after construction, there is an easy pathway to submit the current information.

LEED isn't meant to restrict the owner in operating their building - if the needs of the property change after the project is occupied then the owner should do what they must. I would make a distinction between a re-striping project a week after the plaque shows up compared to changing needs six months later. Specifically for parking, the purpose of the preferred parking is to encourage behavior - the owner should be asking "why aren't these spots being used?" instead of automatically reverting them to standard parking spots...but that would be the difference between someone who really wants a green building and someone who only wants a marketing tool.

Regarding verification, that is one aspect of Green Globes that I like when the assessor visits the property they will see the parking as constructed so that some of those items that change late in the project can be assessed.

Just wondering why nobody has mentioned EBOM yet.

What I was referring to earlier would require BD+C projects to earn EBOM in order to maintain their LEED certification. Unfortunately the EBOM uptake for BD+C projects is very small I think.

Marcus and all - Thanks for your excellent responses to Kerry's questions regarding what happens after construction.

I'd just like to note in regards to Marcus' comment about LEED Online that LEED Online v3 (LOv3) had the step where you had to verify all the design phase credits had not changed before moving into the Construction application phase but the new LEED Online (https://lo.usgbc.org/) does not have that verification step.

It is up to the thoroughness and integrity of the LEED project manager to track the design credits after Design and before the Construction Application submittal to ensure there are no changes that affected compliance. Typically, I e-mail all team members who completed Design phase documentation and ask them to respond (so that I have it in writing) that there are no changes that affected credit achievement. That way, I've done my due diligence.