The Argiro Student Center project has chosen to address one of the criteria in the Light Pollution Reduction credit in a way that differs from the strategies in the LEED-NC Manual. We have chosen to officially establish that the full time janitorial staff, who go into the building for routine cleaning purposes at night, ensure, as part of their necessary responsibilities, that all lights are turned off after hours. This strategy should effectively eliminate undue light trespass from the building in the evening hours and, thereby, this strategy should adequately fulfill the intention of the "minimize light trespass from the building" aspect of the Light Pollution Reduction credit. This compliance route may take the place of the suggestion that: "all non-emergency interior lighting shall be automatically controlled to turn off during non-business hours." The project has chosen alternative compliance for the first part of this credit. And the project intends to fulfill the requirements for exterior lighting as listed in the manual. If the USGBC accepts our alternative compliance route then we may plan to receive a credit for our work in this category.
The team proposed an alternate compliance path where the custodial staff would turn off the interior lights at night to minimize light spill and trespass. This does not qualify as an approved compliance path for the following reasons:
ASHRAE requires a certain level of nighttime lighting control to turn off all unnecessary lighting. Therefore, lighting control needs to be implemented anyway to meet these energy requirements.
Custodial staff may change and should not be relied upon to keep all lighting off.
Applicable Internationally.