I am currently working on a warehouse going for LEED EBOM 2009 certification. The facility is only 5 years old and was built with energy savings in mind and has been maintained well. The facilities manager at the warehouse has been working on making the facility greener and more energy efficient now for the last 4 years. He has implemented many green practices and energy savings techniques and the facility easily meets many of the LEED EBOM requirements.
Is it reasonable to set a performance period that began a year ago and document all the improvements he has made as responses to a "theoretical" energy audit performed at that time?
Otherwise our energy audit would comprise a very short list of possible improvements, and any capital intensive improvements would have a time frame of 5+ years as equipment got older and needed to be phased out...
Thanks!
Jenny Carney
Vice PresidentWSP
LEEDuser Expert
657 thumbs up
September 7, 2010 - 8:28 pm
Since there's no criteria for finding a minimum number or type of energy conservation measures, my advice is to perform the audit in a looking-forward manner, and then include as supplemental information an overview of the measures implemented pre-LEED to explain the assumed dearth of possible measures. You might run into trouble in trying to retroactively assemble the type of information that needs to go into the audit (which could bring about avoidable risk during the review process) and also could miss out the possibility of finding new opportunities.
Sonrisa Lucero
Owner / Energy Engineer / Sustainability ConsultantSustainnovations, LLC
138 thumbs up
July 12, 2011 - 4:08 pm
I don't think you can skip the audit. Was the building ever commissioned at the end of construction? Check out the LEED Interpretations for credits 2.1-2.3. There are two interesting ones there that might apply to a project of this type:
Posting Date: 5/9/2011
ID Number: 10036
Q: For EAc2.1, if the building owner implements system upgrades prior to the completion of the Master List of Findings, can these strategies still count for this credit?
A: These strategies can contribute to the credit. The project team should supply a summary of the actions, date of implementation, and include a list of the low-cost / no-cost recommendations. This can be supplied as a supplement to the Master List of Findings if not reported in that document.
Posting Date: 4/27/2009
ID Number: 2565
...The project building is eligible to earn EA Credit 2.1 without conducting commissioning or energy auditing activities within 5 years of the end of the performance period if the conditions outlined in A, B, and C below are satisfied: A) The project building can demonstrate that energy performance, when normalized for key variables such as occupancy, operating hours, and weather, has improved or remained steady since the initial commissioning activities. B) Initial commissioning activities occurred within 10 years of the end of the performance period. C) At least one of the following is true: 1. The project team's is currently implementing an ongoing commissioning program that meets the requirements for EA Credit 2.3 (e.g., rises above the level of standard preventive maintenance activities to proactive, continuous functional testing) 2. The project building currently has an Energy Star rating of 95 or greater Projects using this approach to demonstrate compliance with EA Credit 2.1...