LEV/FEV parking space allotment in a campus setting

You'll want to set up a "master site" for the whole campus in LEED Online v3 for this and other credits that can apply to other buildings on campus. Any campus systems or facilities that will be shared by more than one building (such as public transit, bike storage, open space, stormwater management, water efficient landscape and renewable energy systems) get documented once in the Master Site, and then the individual building projects refer back to that Master Site submittal. If these are the only two buildings on campus being certified, they are substantially similar, and being built under the same contract you may want to consider the Group project option see more on page 10. The AGMBC guide is linked at http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=2327 and look at pages 5-6. You can see which credits are eligible to be shared in a Master Site in the AGMBC Guide Appendix A table 1 – most of the S credits and a few others. The AGMBC guide advises us that all buildings in a Group Project must use the same compliance path for all credits (page 10). I’ve assumed that holds true for Campus Projects as well. So, in SSc4.3 if you use Option 1, you would need to apply that same strategy for all the buildings and spaces on campus. That would mean allocating 5% of spaces in all parking lots to LEVs. This would get documented once in the Master Site LEED submission, and any LEED project on campus could “share” or reference those master credits. You could also pursue Option 2 or 3, which would require you to provide Low Emitting/ Fuel Efficient vehicles – and designated spaces spaces - for 3% of all campus parking spaces or the whole campus FTE. Option 4 - Car sharing - has been very popular on campuses. Hope that helps.

Hi David, what if you have a campus that is using different rating systems for different buildings as the uses and scope of the buildings fall under different rating systems. Is the master site still the only way to document compliance for the LEV parking?

David I was able to answer my previous question. It seems that the campus approach can be applied to different projects under different rating systems as long as the more stringent rating system is achieved for the credit you are documenting, correct? My follow up question is if we use the campus approach and it includes existing buildings and new LEED buildings is there a prescribed way to determine how many spaces serve each building? I ask as we are required to put the LEV spaces closest to the building so we need a way to determine how many LEV spaces we need to put next to each building. Thank you in advance for any insight. Lisa

Just to be clear, the fact that you have a building on a campus with shared parking lots does not require you to attempt certification through the campus approach. If your campus is achieving a good portion of credits across the whole campus, it might be worthwhile. However if your campus is only achieving one or a few credits across the entire campus, and the client is not planning on certifying other buildings in the future, then attempting campus certification may simply add cost in the form of the campus certification learning curve for the project team and registration/certification fees. Alternatively, you can implement the campus concepts to an individual project certification without registering the campus. In the instance that your building is one of many that share multiple parking lots, people in the past have divided the parking lots based on occupancy of the buildings. Alternatively, you can determine (based on zoning requirements of the occupancy of your building) how many parking spots the building would be required to have if it wasn't on a campus. After you have divided the campus parking, you can either provide 5% LEFE spaces evenly dispersed for the entire amount of parking on the campus, or you can provide 5% LEFE spaces for the amount of parking you have determined is used for your building. If you only provide LEFE spaces for your building, then the sign needs to state that the spots are reserved for that building. This approach is not directly spelled out in the reference guide or AGMBC, but I have had success in the past with interpolating the intent of this credit in order to meet the specific functions of a project. I don't want to deter anyone from attempting campus certification as for certain projects it is definitely appropriate. However, if your project/client doesn't fit the mold, in my experience, it will not save you time or money.