Flush-Out

The cost of flushing is driven by the time needed to complete the flush to meet the credit requirements, and the energy for the heating or cooling of the outside air needed to maintain the interior space conditions. This will be driven by project size, type, time of year, and climate.

Occurring at the end of construction when time and money may be in short supply, this task must be budgeted and planned early and carefully. On the plus side, flushing commonly overlaps with a project’s closeout phase, and teams have learned how to work it in.

Air Testing

This credit includes the long-established LEED credit for Brownfield Redevelopment, while adding criteria to promote development within established historic districts, and in areas designated as priorities due to urban blight, for example.

OPTION 1. HISTORIC DISTRICT: SITE-SPECIFIC
OPTION 2. PRIORITY DESIGNATION: SITE-SPECIFIC

Cost Overview

Formerly two separate LEED credits, this credit calls for a combination of roof and non- roof strategies to provide shaded surfaces, surfaces with high Solar Reflectance Index (SRI), green roofs, or shading with appurtenances, such as solar panels.

Cost Overview

For this credit, projects must designate 5% of all parking spaces as preferred parking for “green vehicles,” which must achieve a minimum green score of 45 according to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

Costs for designating preferred parking spaces with signage are minimal, although operating revenue could theoretically be affected in some cases.

Purchasing green power and carbon offsets on five-year contract, as required under LEED v4, will represent an added cost.

However, projects are often surprised at how affordable renewable energy credits (RECs) and carbon offsets can be. The cost represents an investment in a project somewhere
else that may not have been viable without the market demand, and such off-site projects are often more cost-effective than achieving equivalent reductions onsite.

Commissioning (Cx) is the process of testing and confirming that the building systems operate correctly and as designed and intended, and then documenting that testing process. The cost of the process will vary greatly according to project specifics, but may involve significant “soft costs” in time and fees to the commissioning agent (CxA).

The cost of this credit is project-specific. 

Non-smoking signage is a minor cost and may be required on many projects anyway due to laws.

More significant costs may come up on a residential project when smoking will be allowed within units. The building must be designed and constructed to eliminate smoke migration between the units, or from a unit out into a common corridor. Common practices include sealing wall penetrations like outlets, switches, thermostats, pipes and ducts, and wall headers and footers.

Projects have a choice of strategies for credit compliance, based in part on whether they are naturally or mechanically ventilated.

Option 1: Enhanced IAQ Strategies

Entryway systems, cross-contamination prevention, and filtration will add construction cost to a project, but not significantly. The ventilation calculations present some added soft costs, but these would be shared with EQp1. 

Option 2: Additional Enhanced IAQ Strategies

Projects can choose from one of the following strategies, depending on ventilation type.

Cost Synergies

This credit awards two points to projects that create a “real-time, fully automated” demand response (DR) plan, install controls and meters to allow the plan to be implemented, and also participate in a local utility demand response program. If there is no local utility DR program, the project can earn one point for installing the controls and meters needed if a program becomes available in the future.

The cost of locating a project within a LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) is very project-specific, and beyond the scope of this study. There is no general reason for a cost premium, unless the development as a whole is being built on a premium basis, but in that case the cost would not be related to the specific building, or to LEED.