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EBOM-v4.1 SSc3:Light Pollution Reduction

Burj Khalifa - PLATINUM in 2024 with huge media facade?

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Marine Petrosyan
Project Manager
Energy Systems LLC
LEEDuser Basic Member
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Hi, All!
I am a bit confused and would appreciate the support of the community in one question. 

Probably many of you know, that Burj Khalifa was LEED EBOM certified v.4.1 in 2024. And the huge media facade of the building, going way up to the building top, should create two major problems - 1. Light pollution, 2. Energy performance. 

What is the overall understanding? How did Burj Khalifa manage to get Platinum with 27/33 in energy performance and 1/1 Light pollution Reduction?  

I may assume that the lighting zone of the location could allow the building to stay within the boundaries of the permissible lighting levels, also the overall energy consumption assessment is a hollistic calculation, which could sum up with really low energy consuming equipment usage, etc. However, I would appreciate the community's opinion, how the consulting team made it possible. 

Thank you in advance!

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Bill Swanson
Sr. Electrical Engineer
Integrated Design Solutions
LEEDuser Expert
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Fri, 07/18/2025 - 13:24

The light pollution one is easy to answer. Internally illuminated signs are ignored.  The EBOM version doesn't mention them at all.  The NC version says to ignore them from calculations but has a generic brightness limit.  (Not a size limit) Most of these signs are for a business name or logo.  Making one the height of a building I'm sure was not imagined as likely.  It probably would have been allowed in NC too.Regarding energy performance.  It's probably also ignored.  Exceptions "Lighting that is integral to signage and installed in the signage by the manufacturer."  Or "Lighting used to highlight features of public monuments and registered historic landmark structures or buildings."  Feel free to be outraged.  I'm still salty that a LEED rated casino was allowed to have smoking inside. 
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Marine Petrosyan
Project Manager
Energy Systems LLC
LEEDuser Basic Member
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Wed, 07/23/2025 - 13:01

Thank you for the response. I appreciate it. 
1. You are right, I am a bit surprised, because even if the media facade is an internally illuminated structure, it still may cause illumination out of the project boundaries, and EBOM (v.4) "Light Pollution Reduction" required either to shield fixtures with cumulative 2500 lumens, or do measurements for project boundaires. Which means by guideline there still are boundaries of lumens. 
2. EBOM does not mention the signage, of course, but the signage or media facade still produce illuminance, which can go far beyond the requirements. I mean the facade can not be as bright as it wants. Am I right?
3. By the way, it's quite arguable, if media facade is an internally illuminated element, because those are linear lights. I have currently one datasheet, where the optical parameter of the light in 5m is 1.072,3.726lx, Luminous Flux 199.6lm. This is quite considerable. For a big media facade (12,000sqm in my local example), the overall numbers are getting even bigger. How can this illuminance level be ignored?
Also, can I please have the name of the casino? ))
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Bill Swanson
Sr. Electrical Engineer
Integrated Design Solutions
LEEDuser Expert
516 thumbs up

Wed, 07/23/2025 - 15:53

  1.  This is about definitions.  What is a light fixture and what is a sign?  Technology has blurred the line.  Generally, anything like a TV, is still viewed as a sign and ignored by this credit.  And this building should be an example used to change this credit's language.  Who could have imagined 10 years ago when this was written that this could happen?
  2. This is the same as above, definitions.  Light fixtures on a facade can not be as bright as it wants.  Signs on an EBOM building's facade can be as bright as it wants.
  3. https://www.usgbc.org/articles/fact-check-usgbcs-brendan-owens-usa-today
    The casino is the Palazzo.  The statements from Brendan Owens seemed relevant to this discussion.  They didn't want LEED to be overly complex without a compelling reason to do so.  That project gamed the system, "there was no policy to sidestep".  "... based on the successes and failures of the way LEED had been used and abused" LEED has been revised to prevent this specific situation from happening again.  There was a USA Today article that shamed LEED.  This sounds like a good article for some renewed shaming.  Hopefully LEED will improve.

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