The project is a 43 acre urban development with 8 primary buildings containing roughly 17,000,000 s.f. of space. The LEED documentation for this project will be submitted concurrently as 8 separate submittals, one for each building; however, certain SS and WE credits will be submitted as campus credits as they pertain to the project at large. We are requesting approval to submit SSc7.2 as a campus credit since the SRI requirements have been calculated, and exceeded on a project-wide level. The weighted average roof calculation method described on page 98 of the LEED v2.2 Reference Guide was used to calculate a total weighted SRI of 84 for the project, which exceeds the theoretical SRI of 66 (75% of roof area = SRI 78 and 25% of roof area = SRI 30). In fact, 82% of the total campus roof area has an SRI that exceeds the theoretical SRI value of 66. The following weighted average calculation approach was used to determine the project-wide weighted SRI for all roofing surfaces: (Area of Roof Surface A / Total Campus Roof Area) * SRI of Roof Surface A) + (Area of Roof Surface B / Total Campus Roof Area) * SRI of Roof Surface B) + (Area of Roof Surface C / Total Campus Roof Area) * SRI of Roof Surface C) = Total project-wide weighted SRI Similar to other campus credits, the heat island effect is of campus-wide concern since the ambient air temperature around and above the development is directly affected by the albedo of selected roofing surfaces. By exceeding the SRI requirements for this credit on a campus-wide level, the heat island effect and associated cooling energy loads have been minimized, therefore promoting a healthier environment for the humans and wildlife that inhabit this development. We request confirmation that the proposed strategy to submit SSc7.2 as a campus credit is acceptable to achieve the intent of this credit.
The applicant is seeking to submit this credit based on a campus-wide aggregate of all the roof surfaces and corresponding SRI values. However, based on the LEED-NC Application Guide for Multiple Buildings & On-Campus Projects (AGMBC), which deals with campus situations like this, this approach is not acceptable for LEED projects to demonstrate individual achievement through weighted averaging of achievement across multiple LEED projects. The AGMBC does allow multiple buildings to submit as a single LEED project, for which the weighted average approach described above would be appropriate.Update April 15, 2011: Please note that all 2009 projects in multiple building situations must follow the 2010 Application Guide for Multiple Buildings and On-Campus Building Projects, located here: https://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=7987. 2009 project teams should check this document for up to date guidance on all multiple building issues. Applicable Internationally.