The project building is a 3,281,721 SF shopping mall located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The facility includes retail tenants, sit-down restaurants and cafes, fast food services in a food court, a community center and art center, cinema, and children\'s play area. Due to its primary designation as a mall, this project is not eligible for Option A - Energy Star Rating. Under normal circumstances, facilities of this type would utilize Option B, which benchmarks facilities against U.S. national average source energy use intensity (EUI) data from building of similar operation types. However, the project team believes that the building\'s location prevents this approach from being accurate due to differences in operating parameters, climate, and building code requirements. As a result, the project team proposes to perform benchmarking via Option C based on the following procedure using the USGBC\'s EAc1_Option_BC_Calculator: 1. Calculate Benchmark Source EUI based on entering a detailed breakdown of spaces. Because the project building contains a greater proportion of floor area designated to restaurants than a typical US mall, itemizing space entries into the benchmarking tool is considered to be more accurately than classifying 100% of the floor area as "Retail-Mall". 2. Normalize the C1 Baseline produced by the calculator to account for the difference between operating hours of US malls and those of the project building. CBECs does not track operating hours for mall facilities, but a survey of 30 US malls shows that facilities are consistently open for business between 72-73 hours per week. By contrast, the project building is open for business 88 hours per week. The ratio of US mall typical operation hours : project building hours will be applied to the EUI baseline established in step 1. 3. Incorporate 3 years of historic energy consumption at the project building into the baseline via standard use of the EAc1_Option_BC_Calculator. This will help to account for the other differences between US-based malls and the project building by incorporating Dubai-specific energy consumption data into the baseline. Please confirm if this approach to demonstrating compliance with LEED-EB:O&M EA Prerequisite 2 and Credit 1 is acceptable to USGBC.
It would be acceptable to use either EAc1 Option B or Option C because of differences between the building\'s location and U.S. buildings in regards to benchmarking facilities against U.S. national average source energy use intensity (EUI) data from building of similar operation types. Additional normalization for differences in operating parameters such as operating hours and climate would be acceptable as part of this approach. Additional normalization based on differences in building code requirements between the building\'s location and the United States would not be acceptable. Please submit the calculations and analysis used for normalization. The documentation can be in form of additional narrative and spreadsheet In instances where multiple variables are used to adjust whole-building building energy data, the project team must take into account potential synergies between the variables. This is necessary to avoid situations in which to two variables are dependent upon each other, and therefore using both to normalize data is redundant in whole or in part. Where possible synergies between multiple variables exist, regression analysis is necessary. Because there does not appear to be any potential synergies between building size, climate and operating hours, regression analysis would not be necessary for Step 2 above. Although the approach that has been presented above in Steps 1, 2 and 3 would be acceptable, the USGBC\'s EAc1_Option_BC_Calculator does not currently directly support this methodology for Options B, C1 or C2. The approach that has been presented in Steps 1, 2 and 3 though is currently supported by the EAc1_Option_BC_Calculator for Option C3 with the documentation of a known subset of building comparables and integration of the building\'s historical data into the Adjusted Benchmark Score. Alternative approaches to using the EAc1_Option_BC_Calculator for Options B, C1 or C2 to document Steps 1, 2 and 3 would need to be logical changes and be clearly articulated to the LEED Review Team through additional narrative and spreadsheet documentation. The maximum allowable LEED points that are presently designated for each LEED-EB: O&M EAp1 Option compliance path would still be in effect for the selected option documented using the approach outlined above. Applicable Internationally; UAE.