Schematic Design

The owner and design team set preliminary acoustical performance goals and add them to the Owner Project Requirements (OPR) for the building

All Cases

Look for incentives or rebates from state or local authorities if the Phase II ESA concludes that remediation is required. 

After remediation is completed, ask the environmental professional to write a letter stating that the site cleanup has been conducted to local, state or federal standards for residential, unrestricted use. The letter should describe the actual remediation steps in detail. 

Depending on the extent of contamination and the strategy for remediation, efforts may not be complete until just before construction begins. The timeline will vary for each project. 

If remediation is required, determine the best strategy for your site, contamination type, and concentrations in collaboration with your environmental professional. Set a timeline to determine the impact on the construction schedule. 

Current technologies for generating small-scale renewable energy systems have two major barriers: low efficiency and high installation expense.

Conventional developer-driven projects do not allow room for long payback. It is helpful to run a long-term cost-benefit analysis to estimate the savings after the first ten years of the installation, presenting onsite renewable system as a cost-effective investment to the future occupants. Spec projects can still pursue this credit and install

Determine an annual energy-cost estimate using your energy model, if developing one for EAc1: Optimize Energy Performance, or by basing it on the estimates of average building energy usage developed by CBECS—see the LEED Reference Guide.

Consider the onsite environmental impact of the technologies. Will wind turbines affect migratory birds? Will solar panels cause unwanted glare?