November 28, 2005— Designers can now earn credit under Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for use of the Advanced Energy Design Guide for Small Office Buildings.
The inclusion of the design guide will help designers achieve LEED certification, offered by the US Green Building Council (USGBC). The guide has also earned a leadership award from the USGBC.
The Advanced Energy Design Guide for Small Office Buildings is a recipient of a USGBC 2005 Leadership Award, which recognizes outstanding individuals and organizations that signify vision, leadership and commitment to the evolution of green building design and construction.
Specifically, the design guide has been added in LEED-NC 2.1 and the upcoming LEED-NC 2.2 as a prescriptive compliance path to achieve LEED-NC Energy and Atmosphere Credit 1, Optimize Energy Performance (EAc1), credit.
LEED-NC EAc1 is intended to reduce environmental impacts associated with excessive energy use by awarding LEED credit to buildings that achieve increasing levels of energy performance above ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-1999.
The guide establishes a previously unavailable prescriptive compliance path and enables small office design teams to earn LEED-NC EAc1 points without incurring the costs associated with whole building energy simulation. Small office buildings that successfully demonstrate compliance with the guide will be awarded 4 LEED EAc1 points.
The guide was developed by a committee representing a diverse group of energy professionals drawn from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the New Buildings Institute (NBI), the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) and the Department of Energy (DOE).
For more information, visit the ASHRAE Web site.
