RE: Arc 101 – How Does Arc Benefit All Existing Buildings?
Dear Clients,
GBCI officially launched Arc this month. This new platform has many capabilities suited for:
Any existing building interested in benchmarking at real time
EBOM Re-certifications
First time LEED EBOM certifications
Re-certifications of projects previously certified under BD+C or ID+C
Who does this Apply To?
Arc’s new platform provides the flexibility to allow any existing building (LEED certified, Not LEED Certified, and not interested in pursuing LEED certification) to better understand their current performance data in Energy, Water, Waste, Transportation, and Human Experience, all in real time.
This is possible using the new “Apps” function, such as ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, DropBox and OneDrive. By directly establishing connection with each of these “Apps”, Arc can pull data, access and save files directly from all these accounts to a registered Arc project.
Similarities/Differences:
All App accounts must be active and data must be up-to-date for the Arc to display real-time performance. All team members will be able to easily view a score from 1-100 points every time they access their Arc project. EBOM scoring has remained the same: Certified 40-49 points, Silver 50-59 points, Gold 60-79 points, Platinum 80+ points.
Like past LEED certifications, if a project has satisfied all LEED prerequisites, credits and supporting documents and a score of at least 40 points is attempted, a project qualifies to pursue a LEED certification. The difference in Arc, pursuing a LEED certification is optional. This option is available for existing buildings who want to implement LEED EBOM standards on their project and understand how the project will benchmark against other similar buildings, without the need of taking the last step of paying for the LEED EBOM certification.
Alternatively, for existing LEED certified projects that would like to re-certify their LEED EBOM projects, Arc has built-in capabilities to allow re-certifications to process their past documents and data more efficiently, again using “Apps”.
New Features for Initial EBOM Certifications:
First time LEED EBOM certifications have the added benefit of earning a LEED certification using an alternative compliance path documenting less prerequisites and less credits. Full details about the new compliance path can be viewed here.
Additionally, the number of supporting documents has significantly decreased. The real-time performance data pulled from the Apps, streamlines the process, reducing the number of hours to prepare required documentation. This means, in the long term, projects pursuing EBOM certifications through Arc will be investing less money for the same quality of green building certification – LEED.
Fees:
For the first time since 2010, GBCI increased LEED fees across all LEED rating systems:
Registration - One-time registration fee of $1,200 (instead of $900)
Certification/Recertification – Existing Building’s minimum thresholds based on gross square footage ranging from $0.030/SF to $0.038/SF. Payment is due at the time of application submittal that covers 5 annual certifications. The new fee structure benefits small facilities but increases the GBCI fee for larger facilities since the square footage cap of 500,000 SF was eliminated. We will continue to support teams with their overall budget needs for certification as some of these fees are offset by simplification and data automation of the new system.
Articles:
If you have any questions about this LEED Memo, please contact Ruby Gonzalez, LEED Project Manager at rgonzalez@verdani.com.