Hi everyone,
We have a student housing project that is located within a university campus which has shared parking with the rest of the campus. There are some existing EV charging stations on campus.
1. EVSE do not have location requirements.
a. Can we use existing EV charging stations (which meet the technical requirements and not already designated to a LEED project) towards the credit? If we do this, will the spaces be reserved for the building occupant's use only, even if it is far away from the building?
b. If we provide new EVSE charging stations, do they have to be located near the project building?
2. Page 56 of the reference guide under "Total Vehicle Parking Capacity" states, "if parking spaces are shared among two or more buildings ("pooled" parking"), determine the share of this parking allocated to the project. Include this number of spaces in the total parking capacity and provide rational for the parking distribution if necessary."
What is an acceptable way to determine the share of parking allocated to the project?
a. Do I ask the owner to guess and provide a narrative explaining rational?
b. (project building area / total campus building area) x total no. campus parking spaces
c. (project occupancy/ total campus occupancy) x total no. campus parking spaces
d. other?
3. Do preferred parking spaces, EVSE , (and carpool spaces) have to be reserved for use by the project building occupant's use only?
thank you for your time!
Emily Purcell
Sustainable Design LeadCannonDesign
LEEDuser Expert
318 thumbs up
July 27, 2018 - 4:02 pm
Hi Ashley! You're totally right that this credit doesn't address buildings on campuses very clearly - on the one hand it would be nice to have clearer guidance, on the other hand it's flexible and providing a reasonable rationale for what you do go with will go a long way.
So, starting with #2, any of these approaches will be acceptable if you can provide an explanation.
For #1 and #3, it depends on your parking layout. If the parking you determine is allocated to the building is in a lot with existing EVSE, that's fine to use (as long as it's not allocated to another LEED project, as you mention). As for whether to reserve it specifically for the LEED building, see if that makes sense with the lot you've selected. Is it logically connected to the project building already, e.g., are all the preferred spaces closer to the project than to any other building? In that case, you can just reserve some spaces without specifying the project building - it will be clear from the layout who those spaces are "preferred" for. If it's more centralized, with other buildings surrounding, reserving for the project building would be best. Or, if it's a smaller lot, you could base the preferred parking/EVSE calculations on 100% of the lot even if the project parking isn't 100%. I think that tends to be the option that makes the most sense on the ground, as far as having clear direction and signage for parking users.
Or, as yet another alternative, the university could do discounted parking passes for those LEED building occupants who carpool/use LEFE vehicles.
Hope that's a good start!
Jasmin Rajak
FluorMay 21, 2020 - 9:21 am
Hi Emily,
I had a question about LEED v4.1- Electric Vehicles credit. Similarly to the use of existing EVSE charging stations for a project, can existing EV Infrastructure on a campus, which has not been allocated to any other building, be used by the LEED project?
Thanks.
Emily Purcell
Sustainable Design LeadCannonDesign
LEEDuser Expert
318 thumbs up
May 22, 2020 - 11:35 am
Great question, I have not heard of any projects attemtping the EV Ready option on a campus. I don't see any reason it wouldn't work out to follow the same approach as EV chargers, but it may be worth discussing with LEED Coach or a reviewer to be totally sure.
Jasmin Rajak
FluorMay 23, 2020 - 5:06 am
Thanks Emily!