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This credit requires you to document your building occupants’ commuting habits and reduce the number of conventional commuting trips made to your building. There are a lot of points at stake, so it’s worth taking a close look at the credit and assessing your building.

Consider using the LEED v4 version of this credit

If you're a LEED-EBOM v2009 project, you may want to consider pursuing the LEED v4 version of this credit. (See USGBC's credit substitution guidance.)

In EBOM 2009, a project only earns points under SSc4 if they achieve (and document) a 10% reduction in conventional commute trips. In LEED v4, any project that simply conducts a LEED-compliant alternative transportation survey can earn a single point, even if they achieve less than 10% reduction in trips.

This change creates a nice incentive for surveying and establishing a performance baseline, even in buildings that have not been terribly successful with alternative transportation.

Public transit not required

In order to earn the credit, you must be able to document that your building’s occupants make at least 10% fewer conventional commuting trips than the LEED baseline. The baseline assumes that all occupants drive alone in a conventional vehicle to and from the building each day of the week.

If your building already meets the 10% credit threshold, you are not required to make further improvements—but if you do so, you can earn more points (a lot more). For example, if your initial commuting assessment shows that 4% of commuting trips use alternative transportation, you only need to improve that number to 10% to meet the first threshold for this credit and earn three points. You are not required to improve 10% on top of your original assessment.

Some teams assume that they can’t earn this credit if their building doesn’t have public transit access. It’s true that urban projects with good public fuel economy stickertransit access will have a better chance of earning more points under this credit, but don’t forget about some of the less-obvious alternative commuting options; telecommuting, compressed work week, and low-emitting and fuel-efficient vehicles can all help you earn points here.

Doing your own survey is the most common approach 

Begin your documentation process with an assessment of your occupants’ current commuting habits. You can complete this assessment by participating in a formal commute-reduction program (Options 1 and 2) or by conducting your own occupant survey to determine how many are using alternative commuting methods (Option 3). Most projects choose Option 3, because good local commute-reduction programs with sound methodology are not widely available. 

When developing your survey, make sure that it adheres to SCAQMD Rule 2202 procedures, a set of guidelines that help you to structure your survey properly and ensure that the results accurately assess occupant commuting behavior. The LEED-EBOM Reference Guide provides a thorough summary of these procedures, so you should be able to use that as a resource rather than spending time reviewing the original SCAQMD rule.

Balance your commuting program and credit documentation efforts

Some elements of a commuting program that can help your building occupants improve their use of alternative forms of transportation include:

  • providing incentives to reduce conventional commuting; 
  • providing physical and programmatic infrastructure to facilitate use of alternative transportation;
  • and educating building occupants about the benefits of alternative transportation. 

Don’t allow your efforts to document the current levels of alternative commuting at your project building overshadow the importance of developing incentives and helping people use alternative transportation.

Costs may vary

The time and costs associated with implementing commute-reduction programs and the commuting survey will vary depending on your approach. Good commute-reduction programs typically require staff infrastructure, good oversight of compliance and tracking, and a financial incentive of some kind to encourage participation. There will also be some staff time involved in creating, distributing, and tabulating the results of a commuting survey. However, there are many no-cost strategies that can boost the use of alternative transportation, such as distributing bike maps, promoting smart phone apps that map bike routes, and setting up an employee carpool program.

Consider these questions when approaching this credit

  • Does building management currently track alternative transport use as part of a local or regional government program? 
  • Does an alternative transportation program providing information, infrastructure, or incentives currently exist at the building? Could that program readily be enhanced in a manner likely to increase use of alternative commuting options? 
  • Do you have the means to distribute an occupant commuting survey and tabulate the results? You can use an online survey tool (which tabulates the results for you), an email survey, or a paper survey.
Credits
SSc4