Sample LEED 2009 Basis of Design Document

The BOD is a foundational document that must address how a design team is responding to the OPR. I strongly resist "samples" and "templates", as that turns the document into a checklist instead of a tool for deeper communication and collaboration in a design team. The basic requirements between v2.2, v2009, and even v4 are the same or the BOD. In v4 there is an added requirement to document requirements for the envelope, but frankly a good OPR and BOD should already address these things. To me a good BOD is not a listing of equipment or materials or systems, it is a narrative telling a story of how the building is going to operate, and meet the needs of the owner. Listing how many chillers for example tells nothing, even if you give specific types and sizes. Telling that the chillers were selected to meet the energy model requirements to provide the performance desired AND how multiple chillers are intended to be operated as lead, lag or in a way matching the highest efficiency to the load at the time is what is needed. For the MEP portion, I always ask engineers to write an introduction to the sequence of control for a unit, focusing on the overall intent, and less on specific components. Our owners are not normally design professionals, so we need to provide the information in a way they can understand.