Buildings Seeking LEED to Provide Performance Data
June 26, 2009

As part of LEED v3, the latest version of the U.S. Green Building Council's program for green building design, construction, operations and maintenance, buildings seeking LEED certification will begin submitting operational performance data on a recurring basis as a precondition to certification. USGBC will be able to use the performance information collected to inform future versions of LEED.

"Today there is all too often a disconnect, or performance gap, between the energy modeling done during the design phase and what actually happens during daily operation after the building is constructed," said Scot Horst, senior vice president of LEED, U.S. Green Building Council. "We're convinced that ongoing monitoring and reporting of data is the single best way to drive higher building performance because it will bring to light external issues such as occupant behavior or unanticipated building usage patterns, all key factors that influence performance."

Projects can comply with the performance requirement in one of three ways:

1. The building is recertified on a two-year cycle using LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance.
2. The building provides energy and water usage data on an on-going basis annually.
3. The building owner signs a release that authorizes USGBC to access the building's energy and water usage data directly from the building's utility provider.

The requirement creates a data stream on LEED-certified building performance that can be used by owners and operators to optimize their building performance and promote the establishment of energy efficiency goals over the life of the building.

"USGBC is proactively investigating cost effective ways for every LEED building to become metered as a way to capture this data," said Brendan Owens, USGBC's vice president of LEED technical development. "However, we know that there are building types that may have a central plant, a military base or a university campus, for instance, where it would be cost prohibitive to install meters on every single building," said Owens. In this circumstance, the MPR would be waived.

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