Rating System

LEED BD+C: New Construction, LEED BD+C: Schools

Rating System Version

v3 - LEED 2009, v2 - Schools 2007, v2 - LEED 2.2

Inquiry

ON-SITE RENEWABLE ENERGY (EA CREDIT 2)\nMULTIPLE CAMPUS SPECIAL ALLOWANCE FOR K-12 SCHOOL DISTRICTS\n\nThe following request is intended to allow K-12 school districts with multiple campuses and multiple LEED projects, to optimize the design, installation and cost of on-site renewable energy systems.\n\nIt is very difficult for older school districts to find sufficient suitable land, parking areas, and structurally adequate building rooftops, on campuses in urban areas, for the installation of renewable energy systems. One campus may have suitable areas while another has no suitable areas. The intent of this LEED interpretation is to allow the one campus within a school district to serve as the on-site renewable systems location for other campuses.\n\nThis request would allow districts to have renewable energy systems in one, or more, centralized areas, and would help optimize the cost and allocation of energy generated by such systems across multiple projects. A school district with multiple campuses is currently forced to located renewables energy systems within a campus boundary. Large corporations and large universities are allowed to located centralized renewable energy systems to serve multiple LEED projects that can separated far from each other. This seems like an unfair benefit intended to help the large property owners. The benefit should be extended to K-12 school districts.\n\nAlthough this LEED interpretation is written based on K-12 schools the USGBC may wish to extend this allowance to other LEED project types.\n\nFor such an allowance to meet the intent of LEED we believe several restrictions should be applied to avoid issues related to owners of multiple properties that the USGBC might be concerned with. The USGBC should adjust and revise the restrictions below to address any issues we may have not considered such that the intent of LEED is met. A possible list of restrictions is provided below for use by the USGBC in developing criteria for this multiple-campus request.\n\n1. Multiple campus properties must all be owned by the same owner. [The USGBC may decide to allow leased properties to be included if certain criteria is met; e.g, length of lease similar to LEED-CI requirements.]\n\n2. The school district must make a commitment and register at least two projects for LEED certification.\n\n3. Each school district property claimed, either as a LEED project or renewables energy generation site, must be located in the same energy services utility district.\n\n4. The K-12 school district boundary area must be contiguous, or maximum distance encompassing the campuses of no greater than 10 miles square (10 x 10 miles). Exceptions to this requirement will be evaluated on their merits.\n\n5. All LEED School Rating systems can use this interpretation, however, specific renewable energy requirements must be met for each different rating system version.\n\n6. The energy generation generation of each separate renewable systems location can be aggregated together. This will create an overall renewable energy generation value that can then be distributed to separate projects. The energy generation of each separate renewable project location must be evaluated based on the renewable energy resources available at each specific location. For example, if the solar energy systems are used the solar energy generation must be based on the actual solar resources for a specific renewable energy source location.