University of Pittsburgh
OP-4: Building Design and Construction

Institution-owned buildings that were constructed or underwent major renovations in the previous five years are:

1) Certified under a green building rating system for new construction and major renovations, e.g. LEED^®: Building Design & Construction (BD+C)

2) Certified Living under the Living Building Challenge

And/or

3) Designed and built in accordance with published green building codes, guidelines and/or policies that cover one or more of the following:

• Impacts on the surrounding site (e.g. guidelines to reuse previously developed land, protect environmentally sensitive areas, and otherwise minimize site impacts)
• Energy consumption (e.g. policies requiring a minimum level of energy efficiency for buildings and their systems)
• Building-level energy metering
• Use of environmentally preferable materials (e.g. guidelines to minimize the life cycle impacts associated with building materials)
• Indoor environmental quality (i.e. guidelines to protect the health and comfort of building occupants)
• Water consumption (e.g. requiring minimum standards of efficiency for indoor and outdoor water use)
• Building-level water metering

Building space that meets multiple criteria listed above should not be double-counted.

This credit applies to institutions that have new construction and renovation projects completed within the previous five years that are eligible for certification under a green building rating system for new construction. See “Eligible building space (design and construction”) in G. Standards and Terms.

Institutions earn the maximum of 3 points for this credit by having all eligible building space completed during the previous five years certified at the highest achievable level under a green building rating system for new construction and major renovations used by an Established Green Building Council (GBC) (e.g. LEED BD+C, certification level Platinum) and/or certified Living under the Living Building Challenge. Incremental points are awarded based on the percentage of eligible building space that is certified at various levels and/or designed and constructed in accordance with green building policies or guidelines. For example, an institution that had 100 percent of its eligible building space certified at the minimum level would earn 1.5 points for this credit, while an institution that had 50 percent of its eligible building space certified at the minimum level would earn 0.75 points.

Points for this credit are calculated automatically in the STARS Reporting Tool as follows:

* The factor used to calculate points earned for an institution reporting floor area that is not certified, but that was designed and constructed in accordance with published green building design and construction guidelines and policies varies as follows:

Timeframe

Report on the current certification status of buildings at the time of submission. Buildings for which certification is pending should not be counted as certified space, and these buildings may be excluded from the institution’s profile for up to 2 years following registration with a rating system.

This credit focuses on buildings for which construction was completed within the five years prior to the anticipated date of submission.

Sampling and Data Standards

Include all buildings that meet the criteria for eligible building space (design and construction) as defined in G. Standards and Terms; reporting on a sample or subset of buildings is not allowed.

An institution may use any standard definition of floor area (e.g. ASHRAE, ANSI/BOMA, IECC), as long as it uses the same definition for both the total floor area of eligible building space and the floor area of building space that is certified and/or sustainably designed and constructed.