Egress Lighting Alarm System Egress lighting has typically been understood as an element that is required to be illuminated 24 hours a day. Exit signs uselessly consume vast amounts of energy around the world every night in buildings that are unoccupied. The Hillsboro City Hall has proposed linking the building\'s egress lighting with the alarm system whereby when the alarm is activated, signifying that the building is unoccupied, the egress lighting turns off, only to be reactivated when the building alarm is deactivated or the fire alarm is activated (hence providing a modicum of lighting for Public Safety personnel). We believe this strategy is an innovation because it requires working with the city\'s life-safety reviewer and fire marshal to challenging the standard way of thought. Does the USGBC deem this strategy as an innovation?
The USGBC does not consider this proposal to merit an innovation credit. Code requirements vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and creative interpretations are required for almost any interesting project. Successful negotiations with the local code officials in this case is not likely to affect other code jurisdictions, nor will it address the world-wide energy waste cited above. The goal of the innovation described above is to reduce energy use, an impact which is already recognized by LEED in EA Credit 1. If the achieved energy savings are significant enough to warrant an additional energy point, this is where these efforts would be rewarded.