You may assume that good acoustical performance is standard practice and will be delivered by the architect and mechanical engineer, but baseline designs often don’t meet the minimum acoustic requirements of LEED. To achieve this prerequisite you may need the help of an acoustics consultant, especially when project team members don’t have specific experience with acoustical performance. However, the architect or mechanical engineer can perform many of the needed calculations.

You will not earn this prerequisite using standard fixtures that only comply with the federal EPAct 1992. This prerequisite, first introduced in LEED 2009, raises the bar significantly. All projects must now reduce water use by at least 20% as a prerequisite, whereas earlier versions of LEED awarded a point for a 20% reduction. The baseline against which water savings are measured has also become more demanding. The LEED 2009 baseline for commercial lavatory faucets is 0.5 gallons per minute (gpm), whereas the previous baseline was 2.5 gpm.

Addressing both interior and exterior lighting, this credit seeks to reduce light pollution that can block our view of the night sky and cause human health problems as well as ecological problems for many birds, insects, and other animals. Light pollution often represents nighttime lighting that isn’t needed, wasting energy while causing light trespass and contrast, reducing visibility.

To meet this prerequisite, you will need to assess the efficiency of your basic indoor plumbing fixtures, such as faucets, water closets, urinals, and showerheads, and determine how much potable water is consumed relative to a LEED baseline case. If your current bathroom, kitchen and janitorial closet fixtures are already highly efficient, you will probably meet the prerequisite. If your installed fixtures are older and exceed the baseline, you’ll need to modify them.

After having documented your project building's energy performance for EAp2: Minimum Energy Efficiency Performance, EAc1 will require you to focus closely on improving operational performance and, in some cases, upgrading to more efficient equipment. Use your energy audit results from EAp2 to develop your strategy. Identify and implement no-cost and low-cost opportunities to reduce energy consumption, such as changing heating and cooling set points by one or two degrees and reminding occupants to turn off lights and office equipment when not in use.

How energy-efficient is your project building compared with the national average for similar building types? If your project building is already performing well, you may only need to document that performance in order to meet the prerequisite. If your building is relatively inefficient, on the other hand, may have to make operational changes or capital investments to make some improvements. Project teams with underperforming buildings may start by performing an energy audit to identify areas of waste, and the best opportunities for improving efficiency.