Application of LEED (trademark) and SPiRiT to a Proposed Building Design

The planned U.S. Army Environmental Center (AEC) administrative and command functions facility at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD has been designated an Army Showcase Project, which must incorporate the principles of sustainable design and development (SDD), and be worthy of the Sustainable Project Rating Tool (SPiRiT) platinum level rating, and the U.S. Green Building Counsel's (USGBC) rating of platinum for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). The U.S. Army Engineer Research Development Center, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (ERDC/CERL) was tasked with performing an independent review of the preliminary DD Form 1391 to: (1) determine if the proposed design will rate platinum in SPiRiT and LEED, and if not, how to improve the design to ensure the platinum rating; (2) determine the proposed energy savings from the base case model to the proposed design, and (3) review the SPiRiT and LEED credits claimed by the A/E, and determine if any new credits will be associated with CERL-recommended design features. This study concluded that, with appropriate funding and review, this project has the potential to earn the platinum rating on both LEED and SPiRiT criteria, and to achieve improvements in energy savings over the baseline case. Prepared in cooperation with Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), Hanover, NH. Prepared in collaboration with University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The original document contains color images.