Municipal law requires that our building be completely smoke-free inside. It also bans smoking next to the building, but it’s not as stringent as the 25 foot LEED requirement. Do we have to make another policy that bans smoking within 25 feet?

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Yes. If local regulations are not as strict as LEED you must create a policy that complies with LEED standards (and communicate this policy to building users) to achieve this prerequisite. Exterior signage that communicates the policy is required so that all occupants, visitors, and passersby are made aware of the exterior smoking policy.

Sound transmission requirements for adjacency combinations are listed in Reference Guide Table 1, but not all combinations are included. For example, an STC rating requirement is not provided for conference room and standard/executive office adjacency. Is

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All occupied spaces listed in Table 1 should be addressed. If the adjacency combination present in the project is not included in the table, select the most appropriate combination or propose an alternative composite STC rating for that combination.

Our project has small meeting rooms in an open-office plan. This situation appears to require an STC of 50. However, this level seems to be (unrealistically) high, especially considering the doors in the wall partition. STC 50 with a (closed) wall can be

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The credit asks for a Composite STC rating. This essentially means the transmission loss of the wall in addition to the transmission loss of the door, averaged based on their respective areas. So you won't need an STC 50 rated door assembly, but it may still be hard to achieve an STC 50 composite rating unless you have a large wall area with a high STC rating and a small, standard STC 35-40, door.

Is it possible to pursue this as an Innovation credit in a Core & Shell project?

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Yes, it’s possible. Your project would be required to clearly identify which components of the credit will be implemented as part of the developer’s scope of work, and which portions will be part of the tenant’s scope of work and enforced through binding tenant lease or sales agreements. Both the developer and the tenant must sign a legally binding document that includes the technical credit requirements. The document must explicitly state performance requirements for the tenant work. 

We are proposing to metering a new building with a single controller. The controller has the capability to monitor each individual end use (lighting, plug loads, HVAC, water, gas, etc.). Can we meter everything on a distribution board except one specific

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Deriving energy use by subtraction is a viable method for metering by end use.

Remember that “HVAC" is not an energy end use, as it usually includes space heating, space cooling, fans, pumps, etc. which are the end uses. The credit allows the grouping of packaged units serving similar occupancies and schedules. The key to cost effective metering starts with organizing the panel boards by energy end uses. Trying to create the necessary meters within mixed boards can be very difficult and expensive.

The energy cost offset from onsite renewable energy cannot be used to demonstrate compliance with the prerequisite. Can this cost offset still be credited to the proposed energy cost savings for this credit?

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Yes, you may still factor in the estimated energy production of onsite renewable energy systems as a credit against the energy costs of the proposed building.

What options are available to mechanically ventilated projects outside the U.S. to meet this prerequisite?

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Local codes may be used to meet the prerequisite if you can show equivalency with Sections 4 through 7 of ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2010. Alternatively, international projects can choose to comply with the minimum requirements of Annex B of CEN Standard EN 15251–2007, and meet the requirements of CEN Standard EN 13779–2007 excluding Sections 7.3, 7.6, A.16, and A.17.

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