If a free-standing parking garage owned by the project building owner is separately sub-metered, is it acceptable to exclude the garage from the LEED Project Boundary, as allowed by ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager?
The LEED EB: O&M rating system encompasses a broader range of operational and maintenance issues than the ENERGY STAR program, which is more narrowly focused on energy efficiency. Therefore, it is not acceptable for a LEED EB: O&M project to exclude parking from the LEED project boundary or any prerequisite or credit that is under the same ownership as, and which directly supports, the LEED project building. However, if the parking garage is separately sub-metered, its energy use and square footage may be excluded from EAp2 and EAc1 only, in alignment with ENERGY STAR. When submitting for review, include the monthly sub-meter data for the garage and explain how it has been excluded from EAp2 and EAc1. Ensure that the garage has been consistently included for all other prerequisites and credits. This ruling maintains the requirement expressed in Minimum Program Requirement 3 that "all contiguous land that directly supports normal building operations for the LEED project building" must be included within the LEED project boundary for that building, including on-grade and structured parking, while allowing for consistency with the referenced standard for EAp2 and EAc1. Applicable Internationally.