You don't actually have to meter the water. You have to establish a baseline under WEp1, but don't need an individual meter for the building. To get WEc1 you need to meter the individual building and data-log the readings to achieve the credit. We got burned on EBOM 2008 on a project because the building had an individual meter and they said that the meter must be read regularly. We thought the monthly utility invoice was regular enough, but the USGBC disagreed and we didn't get the credit. Now in v3 it looks like they've cleared that up by requiring continuous metering and data-logging.
In terms of the other problems with a campus, the USGBC has been talking about LEED for Campuses for a couple of years now, but it hasn't come out yet. I imagine that it was placed on the back burner when they revamped the whole system last year. Have you heard any buzz about it recently?

The term "Registered" usually refers to having registered with the national body representing the engineers of that country. Not all degree qualified engineers bother to register. You also usually need 3-4 years experience to quallify, but eligibility requirements will differ. For example in South Africa, you need to write an application stating not only how many years, but also in which roles. More than one role is advantageous (e.g. sales, project management, design, quality assurance, etc.) and applications are considered on a case by case basis.

What it means to the Americans is anybody's guess. Maybe one of them can inlighten us. (P.S. as I've posted several times before...international registered LEED ft² is greater than 27% of ALL LEED ft². I tend to feel the international responsibility from America in general is lacking.)

Thanks Chris, for your response. Sorry not to mention it more clearly, but I'm familiar with the requirement to meter the energy use of individual buildings - that's pretty clear in the existing EBOM and Energy Star documentation. What I'm not as clear about, however, are all of the other subtleties listed above... What about water metering and purchasing, especially if you're certifying only half a campus but water metering and purchasing are done centrally?

I agree with Joel. You get to choose the LEED project boundary for your current LEED project. Gerrymandering is not allowed. Make sure that you are consistent with your boundary throughout the entire project.

Be sure to dentify the LEED Project Boundary on EVERY drawing that you submit -- so that it's very clear where the project boundary lies.

We used mark-up software to draw a line around the boundary and called it out. Likewise, if there are buildings on the property that are NOT part of your LEED project, "x" those out on the drawings as well.

Best of luck!

Sherry Bonelli, LEED Green Associate
www.SucceedAtLEED.com

Generally, you are allowed to divide the site as you see fit, as long as it's clear you're not gerrymandering the site to suit specific credit requirements. In other words, there's no specific right way to do it.

You may want to look into creating a 'campus boundary' that includes the whole site and separate 'project boundaries' specific to each project. The three project boundaries do not necessarily have to add up to equal the campus boundary (e.g. the project may contain an on-site retention pond that falls within the campus but not any of the individual project boundaries). You can choose which credits refer to the campus boundary (likely stormwater quantity and quality, landscaping water use, light pollution reduction), and which credits refer to the project boundaries (materials credits, waste management, etc.).

From what I can tell from review comments from a similar situation, consistency in metrics is very important when more than one project is submitting documentation based on elements that are shared by multiple projects.

I would love to be a fly on the wall at some of these USGBC meetings. Just to know what the heck they're doing.

We've got a tip on this in the Checklists tab of our SSc7.2 page.

"Treat terraces and balconies as roof square footage if they protrude from the building and serve as a roof surface for conditioned spaces below."

As Jean suggests this is pretty consistent with the credit intent.

CK,

Those are all valid points and some of the difficulties of Certifying a campus building under EBOM. You need meters for each building and an automation system or someone to record each month's readings. To further complicate matters, many campuses have a central steam and chilled water system, so those would need to be metered also. (Quite possibly natural gas, too).
The problem that I've seen is that although the price of meters has decreased in recent years, the building still needs to be metered and a year's worth of metered data is required for certification. By the time the school purchases, installs, and meters all of the data, the project will take well over a year. It's very tough to get buy in for a project that's well over a year from completion. This is all assuming that the building's efficient enough to meet EAp2 once the data's collected.
Your best bet is to sell the campus on the merits of installing meters to monitor their energy usage. The mere fact that each building is being monitored and the school knows where their energy is going will make them pay closer attention and less wasteful. After the meters are installed, the school can look at energy conservation measures and then begin the push towards EBOM.

Great subject. I would add to say that as (27% all LEED registered ft² is outside the USA) LEED becomes the internationally dominant green building certification program, it should be considered that the habits of countries differ. For example in the UK, almost no one smokes anymore. Tabacco advertising is all but banned. However, in Germany every second person smokes and the practicalities of forcing half of the population of Berlin out into the cold on the streets may seem unrealistic, but their legislation inforces that already. Unfortuanately you can't be 25 ft away from all doors, vents, and operable windows in a built up city where the buildings sit ontop of each other. If all the buildings were LEED certified, you'll always be breaking someones ban.

I was there when the inclosed public space bans came in in the UK and although a lot of people made a big deal of it at the time, they rarely talk about it anymore.

From an energy saving point of view...yes. The amount of energy saved if you had to cancel all those additional extraction fans in the world would really count for something. And world health would improve. Healthcare funded by the tax coming in from selling more extraction fans and tabacco would suffer though.

I would check the intent of the credit and add to say that they pretty much would have all the properties that a roof would have. Also, make sure that you are consitant across the credits with your definition desision.