LEED O+M Recertification
- Perspectives
Image Source: Atlas Copco Website
Did you know, if your building is previously LEED® certified, either under Building Design & Construction (BD+C) or Operations & Maintenance (O+M), you are eligible to recertify and improve your score or certification level to Silver, Gold or Platinum, through USGBC’s performance-based recertification program?
Recertification promotes continuous monitoring of building systems and identifies any deviation from the designed system’s expectations, plus opportunities for improvements and savings. If you’re new to this process, there are a few questions you should ask yourself, such as:
- Is your building as energy or water efficient as the designed systems predicted?
- Are occupants happy and healthy with the building conditions?
- Can your site reduce carbon emissions associated with transportation?
- Can your building divert more waste from landfills?
Validating building performance metrics and reacting to outlying data points are critical to creating real, lasting change and impacts in the green building industry.
Scorecard
The recertification process is made easy because you’ve already achieved a base certification, which immediately earns the project ten base points. The LEED Online profile can be easily converted to Arc, the software platform used for recertification, without any registration fee, if the project has maintained annual data uploading (if not, registration costs $1,200). BranchPattern team members will help you select the 12-month performance period that works best for you, and help you to compile and submit data for five performance areas:
- Energy Consumption
- Water Consumption
- Waste Management
- Transportation
- Indoor Air Quality
“I administered the initial LEED® certification and at the time, the project didn’t have onsite renewable energy. I was hopeful that the addition of the PV panels would help with Energy Performance and was pleased to see the project bump up an entire certification level in large part because of the improved energy score.” – Ryan Baumgart, Associate Principal
There is no minimum requirement or prerequisite in each performance area, and your project’s performance data will be compared to that of similar size and use-types in your geographic region. Based on the final score, you can either certify or improve your performance to obtain a better score and higher level of certification.
Working with a company like BranchPattern can make this process even smoother, as we are passionate about the existing building sector and believe in the importance of confirming modeled design through actual data. BranchPattern helped Atlas Copco recertify their building in Rock Hill, SC, after adding on-site renewable energy with PV panels and making some minor improvements. The recertification effort under LEED® v4.1 Recertification earned Atlas Copco a Silver certification, an entire certification level higher than their original certification under LEED® 2009 New Construction.
| Atlas Copco Manufacturing Facility | |
| Size | 216,590 SF |
| Space Usage Types | Warehouse (168,875 SF)
Office (47,715 SF) |
| Original Certification | LEED® 2009 New Construction | Certified (40 points) | September 12, 2018 |
| Recertification | LEED® v4.1 Recertification | Silver (58 points) | July 19, 2021 |
| Location | Rock Hill, SC |
| Arc Performance Area | Score |
| Energy | 18 |
| Water | 11 |
| Waste | 2 |
| Transportation | 9 |
| Human Experience | 8 |
| Prior LEED® Certification | 10 |
| Total Points | 58 |
BranchPattern manages several LEED® Volume programs for industrial real estate developers, adding up to hundreds of certifications a year, giving us a profound appreciation of the unique challenges encountered within warehouses and distribution centers. One such challenge with O+M certifications in this building type is the administering of online surveys as the majority of building occupants may not have an email address, or may not check it regularly.
During the Atlas Copco recertification, BranchPattern addressed this hurdle by facilitating an employee gathering over coffee and donuts during a morning shift change. Laptops were set up with instructions projected on how to complete the survey. The response rate for the transportation and human experience survey was a success, with 215 of the 396 regular occupants (54.3%) completing the survey in one day. Overall, the respondents’ feedback indicated a high level of satisfaction with the facility. Opportunities for improvement were identified, particularly in areas related to acoustics, sound, and privacy.
Atlas Copco wasn’t sure how successful the survey administration would be, considering most warehouse employees don’t have email. But the methods we used to gather feedback were extremely successful in letting Atlas Copco know how the facility was supporting employees and areas in need of improvement, namely acoustics and supporting the feeling of privacy.
To learn more about LEED® recertification through a performance-based pathway, contact improvinglife@branchpattern.com or call Dannie DiIonno directly to schedule a chat.
