Dear all
I am hesitating whether the following project could obtain a CI certificate for the entire building:
-existing office building
-one entity owns the entire building
-interior works will be carried out for a new tenant occupying 65%GFA
-the remaining 40% GFA remain untouched and is currently occupied by other tenants
According to the 40/60 rule of thumb in the Rating System Selection Guide, the project would qualify for CI and the certificate would be granted to the entire building.
I am however not sure how to understand the wording on page 8 Ádditional Application Guidance´:
Maximum amount of work for interiors projects
If both the following two statements describe the project, then a whole building rating system, with the exception of LEED for Commercial Interiors or LEED for Retail: Commercial Interiors, should be used.
1) the entity conducting the work leases OR owns and controls 90% or more of the building that the space is located in (YES)
2)the same entity is conducting new construction or major renovation in 40% or more of the gross floor area of the building (NO)
..what I do not understand is how the CI, being mentioend as an exception, is treated in this case?
The the area of the new tenant could be CI certified is clear. My question is, wether I can perform works on 60% GFA (meeting prerequisite on 100%) and then still label the entire buildilng as CI certified.
I very much would apreciate your answer on this one.
best regards
Christian
Nadav Malin
CEOBuildingGreen, Inc.
LEEDuser Moderator
844 thumbs up
August 13, 2015 - 11:37 am
Hi Christian,The CI rating system is just for interiors--it can't be used to certify a building as a whole. Even if you were to certify 100% of the tenant space, it would still just be an Interiors certification, not a whole building certification.For the entire building to be LEED-certified, you have to use NC or one of the other whole-building rating systems (EB, Schools, etc.), so that things like whole-building energy use and landscaping, which are not covered in CI, are included appropriately.
Christian Bösselmann
Senior Energy & Sustainability Consultanta°blue / atmosgrad GmbH
3 thumbs up
August 14, 2015 - 3:18 am
Hi Nadav,
thanks for your quick response. Sorry for not being specific enough. With my question whether CI would be applicable for the ´whole building´ I meant whether the owner is allowed to label this building as being LEED CI certified, despite him only having renovated 65%GFA? The remaining 35% GFA is also under his ownership, but currently occupied by tenants, and hence will not be refurbished.
So what is to be understood under the term ´whole building rating system´ or in other words, which LEED rating schemes do not count towards these?
best regards
Christian
Jan Hesse
Dipl.-Ing.(FH) | LEED AP ID+CALPHA Immobilien Consulting GmbH
21 thumbs up
August 14, 2015 - 4:05 am
Hi Christian,
as Nadav said before a building can not be CI-certified but only the tenant space.
Since your LEED-CI Scope probably refers only to the "new" rental space, even these areas are assessed by LEED (eg equipment, lighting, etc.). Or will the existing tenant space be in the scope of work and be evaluated with regard to all Prerequistes and Credits? Should this be the case, you should be able to certify the total leasable area (old & new tenant), as more than 60% of the lettable area will be undergoing a complete interior fit-out.
But remember that a CI certification will always be a certification of the tenant space. I think it is difficult to control another tenant concerning for example energy star certified equipment.
Best regards
Jan
Christian Bösselmann
Senior Energy & Sustainability Consultanta°blue / atmosgrad GmbH
3 thumbs up
August 14, 2015 - 4:13 am
Hi Jan
thanks for you input. So the strategy woudl be to make sure Prerequisites are met by all tenants. Implemented measures for optimization with regards to lighting power consumption, fixtures could then be done in 65% of the GFA and weighted in their contribution to the overall building. - what do you think?
As you pointed out, the owner has no influence on the rating of the equipment. However I am quite confident that the equipment purchased will meet at least the minimum requriement.
MfG
Christian
Jan Hesse
Dipl.-Ing.(FH) | LEED AP ID+CALPHA Immobilien Consulting GmbH
21 thumbs up
August 14, 2015 - 4:32 am
I think LEED is not DGNB where you can show compliance in Credits by weighting. You have to show compliance for the entire space, i.e. the existing tenant space.
I think the better system for this project is EB:OM with a performance period of 12 months after the new tenant moved in. The whole building is certified for the next 5 years and can be recertified also with different tenants then. But I´m not an EB:OM specialist - maybe I overlooked something there.
Christian Bösselmann
Senior Energy & Sustainability Consultanta°blue / atmosgrad GmbH
3 thumbs up
August 14, 2015 - 4:41 am
Hi Jan
the lighting power and water consumption can be ´weighted´ by calculating the effect of efficient equipment only in portions of the building total installed capacity. The same way as if you woudl do with different kinds of equipment. But the prerequisites are to be met for all spaces in my opinion.
The whole problem is that I cannot conduct the performance period while the main tenant has left the buildng (leaving 65% of GFA vacant). In that case I would have to wait for the new tenant and then start the performance period. But the owner is interested in the LEED certificate in order to attract a new tenant. So the question is whether to do LEED EBOM before the space becomes vacant without having the chance to optimize PP-related credits, or to pursue a CI certification while doing the renovation works.
Looking at EBOM I have realized it is quite difficult to get your head around it , if one normaly is dealing with new construction.
Jan Hesse
Dipl.-Ing.(FH) | LEED AP ID+CALPHA Immobilien Consulting GmbH
21 thumbs up
August 14, 2015 - 5:12 am
I understand your point. What you are looking for is something like Core&Shell for an existing building. I think you will not find this in LEED - maybe BREEAM fits better here.
But I'm curious if there are other opinions on this subject, since such requests keep coming.
Nadav Malin
CEOBuildingGreen, Inc.
LEEDuser Moderator
844 thumbs up
August 14, 2015 - 8:36 am
Given that the most appropriate approach for this scope is LEED-CI, it seems that the question is really about how the owner can legitimately market the project's LEED achievement. As long as you word the marketing materials carefully, I think the owner can get what they need quite easily. For example, as long as you talk about it as a LEED-certified "project" rather than a LEED-certified "building", there is no issue with it being CI rather than NC, and only part of the interior space. (Of course, you can't call it "LEED certified" until it has actually earned the certification.)Also, you have the benefit of USGBC's branding guidelines, which actually discourage you from specifying which rating system was used. They prefer "LEED-certified" over "LEED-CI-certified." See page 11 of this document. Good luck!