Assess commuting practices
This is a performance-based prerequisite that must be documented through the Arc platform. Teams conduct a transportation survey to assess the greenhouse gas emissions (in CO2e) resulting from occupant commuting practices.
A ready-to-send transportation survey is provided on the Arc platform for registered projects. The survey can be emailed directly to regular building occupants for quick completion online.
Teams that prefer to catch occupants in the lobby have the option to switch the survey to “lobby mode” on Arc. This mode will activate the survey for “in person” administration on a single device or multiple devices that can be used from the lobby.
Survey the right building users
The transit survey must be given to regular building occupants. Examples are employees, volunteers who regularly use the building, residents (including residents of a dormitory), primary and secondary school students, hotel guests, and inpatients. Visitors are encouraged (but not required) to be surveyed, especially if the daily average is greater than the number of regular building occupants. Examples of visitors are retail customers, outpatients, volunteers, and higher-education students.
A prerequisite with points
A minimum performance score of 40 must be achieved to earn this prerequisite. Your project will receive six LEED points for reaching this threshold. Additional points (up to 14) are achieved as your performance score increases.
Performance scoring
This prerequisite assesses the greenhouse gas emissions (in CO2e) resulting from building occupant commuting practices. Many more factors feed into the performance score than the conventional transit survey from v4—the distance traveled, transit mode, and CO2e per mile are all assessed. The Arc platform also compares your survey results against other high-performing buildings worldwide (i.e., other LEED-certified projects). Check out the LEED v4.1 O+M Beta Guide for more details on how transportation performance is scored in v4.1.
What’s New in LEED v4.1
- Changed from a credit to a prerequisite
- Transportation survey must be conducted via the Arc platform
- Performance is now based on CO2e per one-way trip per occupants (rather than the percent reduction in conventional commuting trips)
- Survey must collect data on the distance traveled by occupants
- Changed title from Alternative Transportation to Transportation Performance
- Removed Option 3—teams can no longer achieve points just for implementing an alternative transportation program
Should I upgrade?
The only way to determine your v4.1 transportation performance score is to conduct the survey through Arc. If you anticipate that most occupants commute using modes that are low CO2e (such as walk, bike, telecommute, motorcycle, heavy rail, or carpool) then you may be well positioned to achieve a high transportation performance score. But, completing both survey versions is the only way to confirm how your project will score in either rating system.
Survey distribution method is another important consideration. Arc uses an electronic survey, so if using paper surveys is your preferred approach, you’ll wantto stick with v4.
And finally, consider that there are 15 points plus one Exemplary Performance point available under v4, and 14 points available under v4.1.
