The City has a program of prototype buildings for a number of building uses, libraries, police stations, and fire stations. Our project is a re-design of a police station prototype building that is being altered to meet LEED certification criteria. The unaltered prototype has already been constructed in several locations. The nature of the prototype program brings a few unique issues to the LEED process for which some direction will be helpful. First, we are interested hiring a third party commissioning agent as part of the LEED process with the goal of satisfying both the prerequisite requirements and the additional commissioning credit. The commissioning agent will be engaged prior to full development of the LEED changes and CDs for this building. The commissioning authority will perform all of the tasks listed under the prerequisite and the credit. Does this meet the intent of EA Credit 3? Further, due to the nature of the prototype program, this project brings with it a unique opportunity where the exact, or very similar, building has already been built without a green initiative. We are interested in comparing the performance of our LEED prototype to the existing prototype for an innovation credit. Would the USGBC find such a study valuable? And, if so would this provide the project with an innovation credit?
Part One: Commissioning Requirements Yes, you can meet the requirements for both basic and advanced commissioning for this project. By re-designing a prototype building to meet LEED requirements, you have the opportunity to address all of the commissioning requirements for both the prerequisite and the additional commissioning credit in LEED. These requirements are identified in the LEED Reference Guide. Part Two: Innovation in Design Credit Innovation in design requires that you demonstrate either exceptional performance above LEED requirements, and/or innovative performance in categories not specifically addressed by LEED. Your question specifically addresses the possibility of a performance evaluation of the project. One way to achieve an innovation credit in this area would be as follows: LEED addresses building performance measurement in Energy and Atmosphere Credit 5; Measurement and Verification. The first step toward a performance evaluation for project would be to follow the requirements for EA credit 5 and implement an effective Measurement and Verification strategy. The project could then go beyond this credit (thus achieving exemplary performance) by also applying a similar M&V strategy to an existing building and developing a comparison study protocol. This level of effort would lead to valuable comparative data, and would qualify the project for an innovation credit. Applicable internationally.