Virginia Commonwealth University
OP-4: Building Operations and Maintenance

Institution's buildings are operated and maintained in accordance with a sustainable management policy/program and/or a green building rating system focused on the operations and maintenance of existing buildings, e.g. LEED®:  Building Operations + Maintenance (O+M).

Sustainable operations and maintenance policies/programs and rating systems may be:

• Multi-attribute: addressing water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, material and resources, and indoor environmental quality (e.g., BREEAM-In Use, LEED O+M, and similar programs); OR

• Single-attribute: less comprehensive; focusing predominantly on either resource use (i.e., energy and/or water efficiency) or indoor environmental quality (e.g., green cleaning, indoor air quality, and integrated pest management).

Building space that is third party certified under a multi-attribute green building rating system developed/administered by a WorldGBC member Green Building Council (GBC) is weighted more heavily for scoring purposes than space operated and maintained under other standards and policies/programs.For more information, see Examples of Multi-attribute and Single-attribute Building Frameworks.

Floor area operated and maintained under multiple O+M policies/programs and/or rating systems should not be double-counted.

Building space that is certified only under a green building rating system for new construction and major renovation does not count for this credit. For example, a building that is certified under LEED: Building Design + Construction (BD+C), but not LEED: Building Operations + Maintenance (O+M) should not be counted as certified space. Sustainability in new construction and major renovation projects is covered in the Building Design and Construction credit.

This credit applies to all institutions.

A institution earns the maximum of 5 points available for this credit by having all eligible building space certified at the highest achievable level under a multi-attribute, GBC rating system focused on the operations and maintenance of existing buildings, e.g., LEED O+M Platinum. Incremental points are awarded based on the percentage of building space that is certified at each level and/or maintained in accordance with a sustainable operations and maintenance policy/program (see table below). For example, an institution that has 100 percent of its eligible building space certified at the minimum level would earn 2.5 points for this credit, while an institution that has 50 percent of its eligible building space certified at the minimum level would earn 1.25 points.

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

Timeframe

Report on the current certification status of buildings at the time of submission.

Buildings for which O+M certification has lapsed should not be counted as certified space. Likewise, buildings for which certification is pending should not be counted as certified space; these buildings may be excluded from the calculations for this credit for up to two years following registration with a rating system. Finally, buildings that have been certified under a rating system that focuses on design and construction (e.g., LEED BD+C) may be excluded from the calculations for this credit for up to five years following the date of certification.  

Sampling and Data Standards

Include all eligible building space (operations and maintenance) that is part of the institution’s overall STARS institutional boundary. Reporting on a sample or subset of eligible building space is not allowed for this credit.

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 operated and maintained.

Buildings that are not owned by the institution and in which the institution is one of multiple tenants may be excluded. If the institution chooses to include such buildings, it must include all multi-tenant buildings that are included in the institution’s overall STARS boundary (see Institutional Characteristics) and in which the institution is a tenant; institutions cannot choose to include some leased spaces and omit others. If an institution chooses to include leased spaces, the institution should count only the square footage of building space it occupies and not the entire building.

Buildings that the institution leases entirely (i.e., the institution is the only tenant) should be included.