The LEED Steering Committee has approved a change to the Minimum Program Requirements (MPRs) to the 2008 and 2009 versions of LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance.
The occupancy rate required for certification has been lowered from 75% to 50%. This change is in response to current market realities that have disqualified an unprecedented number of properties from pursuing LEED certification because they are unable to meet the 75% occupancy rate requirement. USGBC staff and LEED committee members have determined that lowering the required occupancy rate to 50% does not undermine the technical integrity of LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance certification and are pleased to be able to offer this solution to the market. This is expected to be a permanent change. Questions regarding this change in policy can be submitted to the USGBC Customer Contact Form.
The technical guidance document detailing how LEED for Existing Buildings projects may demonstrate compliance with the minimum occupancy requirement can be found here, or under the LEED-EB: O&M 2008 and LEED 2009 for Existing Buildings resources pages.
All LEED for Existing Buildings projects with occupied floor area between 50% and 90% of total floor area must follow the technical guidance document while projects with more than 90% occupied floor area are exempt.