Provide a copy of the New Buildings Institute Advanced Buildings: Core Performance Guide to each team member. The guide is available to download free from the NBI website. (See Resources.)
Review the three options to earn this credit, and decide which makes the most sense for the project.
Option 1: Do not exceed minimum zoning requirements and provide preferred parking for carpools and vanpools.
Option 2: Provide no new parking.
Option 3: If your project has no minimum zoning requirements, provide 25% less capacity than recommended in the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) “Parking Generation” study (see Resources).
Option 3: Prescriptive—Advanced Buildings Core Performance Guide
Although Option 2 is generally lower cost during the design phase than energy modeling, the compliance path is top heavy—it requires additional meeting time upfront for key design members.
The AEDG prescriptive requirements include:
a maximum allowable window-to-wall ratio;
continuous insulation on the outside of walls;
roofs and floor-slab minimum thermal performance;
minimum window and door thermal performance;
minimum boiler and chiller efficiencies;
and mandatory use economizers or heat recovery ventilation.
If your project team is not comfortable following these guidelines, consider switching to Option 1, which gives you more flexibility.
Consider purchasing all compliant consumables one week, and non-compliant products the next, to help manage the tracking process. This makes it easier to separate out the sustainable purchases from the non sustainable ones for each line item on each invoice.
Early access to the AEDG by each team member avoids last-minute changes that can have cascading, and costly, effects across many building systems.
Develop a checklist of all requirements, and assign responsible team members to accomplish them. Hold a meeting to walk the team through the AEDG checklist for your project’s climate zone. Clarify specific design goals and prescriptive requirements in the OPR for EAp1: Fundamental Commissioning.
Find your climate zone before attempting to meet any detailed prescriptive requirements. Climate zones vary by county, so be sure to select the right one. (See the Documentation Toolkit for a list of climate zones by county.)
Provide a copy of the AEDG to each team member as everyone, including the architect, mechanical and electrical engineers, lighting designer, and commissioning agents, are responsible for ensuring compliance. It’s are available to download free from the ASHRAE website. (See Resources.)