Rating System

LEED BD+C: New Construction, LEED BD+C: Core and Shell, LEED BD+C: Schools, LEED ID+C: Commercial Interiors

Rating System Version

v3 - LEED 2009

Inquiry

Our project is located in Shanghai, China where renewable energy contracts are not directly available from the local utility company ruling out option 1 and option 2 for EAc6: Green Power. \n\nRather than pursue the compliance path involving purchase of Green-e energy certified RECs from the US we would like to purchase Green-e climate certified carbon offsets for the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the electricity used by the project over the two-year period.\n\nBecause we do not have a complete picture of the annual energy usage of the space at this time we propose to use the LEED recommended default figure of 8kWh psf per year with a China specific emission factor to determine the necessary volume of offsets required to cover the calculated kWh of energy used (i.e. for two years\' worth of usage).\n\nA precedent for this compliance path was set by Haworth with their LEED CI v2.0 fit out in Washington, DC. Please confirm whether this would be acceptable for this project (or this type of project for LEED Interpretation) and advise any additional requirements of which we need to be congnizant when pursuing the alternative compliance path.