Development of the guidelines involves virtually no capital cost, but they may take a while to write, and you may have to compensate the author’s time. For help getting started, see the Documentation toolkit for samples and a template for the tenant guidelines.

Decide early which parties are responsible for creating the tenant guidelines, and include this task in contractual language describing the scope of their services.

Who will write the tenant guidelines? It could be the developer’s marketing team, the architect, sustainability consultant, owner, or any combination thereof. A collaborative effort is best. Each group has a great deal to offer and can provide varying perspectives and knowledge sets. Your marketing team may know how best to present the information to possible tenants, and your mechanical engineer should be able to explain the energy savings from mechanical equipment.

Review the LEED CI rating system to determine how the core-and-shell project could aid tenants pursuing LEED CI. If the core-and-shell building pursues the following credits you may aid in the tenants pursuing LEED-CI certification:

Contractors involved in various elements of the IPM plan conduct work according to their contracts and report all relevant activities to building management.

Determine whether you will provide any designs or systems to help tenants in the achievement of LEED-CI. An example of this could be, the extent of the CS measurement and verification or submetering plan or water-efficient fixtures. 

If the project is a multi-tenant building, you may want to use your LEED-CS certification as a marketing tool to attract tenants. If this is the case, providing thorough tenant guidelines is a great starting point.  

The tenant guidelines can help build a sense of partnership on sustainability goals between the LEED-CS and LEED-CI teams. As one benefit to this, the tenant may be willing to split the cost of certain items that will help attain LEED-CI. Some items to consider splitting costs on may include:

water-efficient fixtures,
measurement and verification or submetering systems,
bike racks and showering and changing facilities,
upgraded lighting or mechanical equipment,
or commissioning.

If the project is designed for a single tenant, you may want to encourage the tenant to pursue LEED-CI certification, and help them in determining which credits are best to pursue. Information and guidance on these credits could be included in the tenant guidelines.

Discuss with your project team what type of tenants the building expects to attract and whether the building will be multi- or single-tenant. Doing so will help you determine your approach to writing the tenant guidelines.