Our project is located in Shanghai, China where renewable energy contracts are not directly available from the local utility company ruling out option 1 and option 2 for EAc6: Green Power. Rather than pursue the compliance path involving purchase of Green-e energy certified RECs from the US we would like to purchase Green-e climate certified carbon offsets for the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the electricity used by the project over the two-year period.Because we do not have a complete picture of the annual energy usage of the space at this time we propose to use the LEED recommended default figure of 8kWh psf per year with a China specific emission factor to determine the necessary volume of offsets required to cover the calculated kWh of energy used (i.e. for two years\' worth of usage).A precedent for this compliance path was set by Haworth with their LEED CI v2.0 fit out in Washington, DC. Please confirm whether this would be acceptable for this project (or this type of project for LEED Interpretation) and advise any additional requirements of which we need to be congnizant when pursuing the alternative compliance path.
The Project team is requesting clarification regarding whether Energy and Atmosphere Credit 6: Green Power, can be achieved by purchasing Green-e certified carbon credits instead of RECs to offset the greenhouse gas emissions for the electricity used by the project. The approach is not acceptable. Please note that past project reviews do not set precedent for future projects. The intent of the credit is to encourage the development and use of grid-source, renewable technologies on a net zero pollution basis. Carbon offsets do not necessarily meet this intent.Also note that the credit requirements do not constrain the project team to purchase Green-e RECs from the United States. The project team has the option of documenting that the renewable energy purchased is "Green-e certified or equivalent". As stated in the 2009 LEED Reference Guide for Green Interior Design and Construction, page 200, "if renewable energy is not Green-e certified, establish that it is equivalent for the 2 major criteria for Green-e certification: (1) the energy source meets the requirements for renewable resources detailed in the current version of the Green-e standard, and (2) the renewable energy supplier has undergone an independent, third party verification that the standard has been met." Applicable internationally.