Non-certifiable Parking Garage within LEED Boundary

natalie tan

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

May 21, 2014

We are seeking LEED certification for a new office building. A new separate parking garage building (under the same construction contract) falls within the LEED Boundary. I understand that the parking garage will not be certifiable as it does not meet the MPRs for occupancy. The MRP Supplemental Guidance on page 26 states that "If there is a non-LEED-certifiable building within the LEED project boundary, the project team can include the non-certifying building within the project boundary in ALL relevant submittals that are allowed and appropriate for each individual credit and prerequisite, essentially treating the non-certifying building as an extension of the certifying building." May we include the non-LEED-Certifiable building for credits that are relevant (as it contributes to SSc7.1 heat island non-roof & SSc4.4 ) and exclude the non-LEED-certifiable building from credits where it is doesn't contribute (eg. MR-5 Recycled content)? For the Default Budget or Actual Budget for the MR's and IEQ's credits, must we include the construction cost of the non-certifiable parking garage if we are considering it for the SSc7.1 credit? Do we have to consistently apply the inclusion of the non-LEED-certifiable building across all credits? Thanks!

Post a reply

Kristina Bach

VP of Innovation

Sustainable Investment Group

LEEDuser Basic Member

110 thumbs up

Fri, 06/13/2014 - 16:42

I'm not sure and would recommend waiting for Tristan's response and/or contacting GBCI directly for clarification, but my reading of this would lead me to believe that you would need to either include or include the garage consistently across the entire submittal. I.e. you can include it in "ALL relevant submittals" or exclude it in "ALL relevant submittals". Key word being the "ALL" in my opinion. I would be surprised if GBCI would allow you to include the garage in only SSc7.1 but then not MRc5, etc. To me, that just seems a little like gaming the submission. But again - I'd recommend asking for an official answer from GBCI directly as I could definitely be wrong on this issue (http://www.gbci.org/org-nav/contact/Contact-Us/Project-Certification-Questions.aspx). That being said - I actually would expect a parking garage to positively impact your calculations in the MR credits (as typical concrete/steel parking garages would generally have significant recycled content and regional material values to contribute...).

Tristan Roberts

Representative

Vermont House of Representatives

LEEDuser Expert

7780 thumbs up

Tue, 06/17/2014 - 22:05

Natalie, "relevance" isn't determined by whether including the garage will positively or negatively impact your calculations. It is determined by whether there are materials or systems in place that affect the LEED calculation. In almost all credits (excluding perhaps much of IEQ), there will be something that will affect the LEED credits, so the garage should be included in the boundary and in the submittal docs.

Michelle Ray

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Thu, 10/08/2015 - 21:34

Tristan - asking for further clarification please - garage is included in LEED project boundary and calculations for ALL credits - EXCEPT where it states in the MPR that garages are not to be included in gross square footage calculations? So basically garage is included in everything except for square footage calculations EVEN if it's being used for all credits?