Advice provided by: Sarah Gudeman, LEED AP, EIT, Morrissey Engineering, Inc.

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Marc asks:I own a restaurant and am considering going for LEED certification. What should I know before getting into this process? Is LEED CI the best approach or should I wait for LEED Retail? Is there a difference? Thanks alot!

Answer: Marc, it’s hard to give you a definite answer without more information. Is your restaurant in a strip-mall type location, a multi-use building, or a stand-along structure? As the US Green Building Council (USGBC) says, there are sometimes various rating systems that would be appropriate so if you’re unsure it would be prudent to find an experienced LEED Accredited Professional (LEED-AP) to help you gauge your options and guide you through the certification and documentation processes.

First off, you need to decide if LEED certification is something you want to pursue now, or if you want to wait for LEED for Retail and then make your decision. At this point, you won’t lose anything by waiting… especially since all new projects will now be certified under LEEDv3 (the registration cutoff for earlier versions was this past summer) but USGBC hasn’t set a release date for LEED for Retail yet, although the Pilot version has been released.

If you do decide you want to wait for LEED for Retail to evaluate your options, you might want to look into pursuing the Energy Star label for buildings in the meantime. More information on Energy Star can be found at http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=business.bus_bldgs.

If your restaurant were in a strip-mall or multi-use building, I’d recommend LEED for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) and if you’re in a stand-alone building you’ll want to pursue LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance (LEED-EB: O&M). The main difference between these traditional rating systems and the new LEED for Retail is that these are typically more designed towards office building type environments.

LEED for Retail (which will actually have two rating systems, New Construction and Commercial Interiors) will cater more towards retail, but based on my research, it seems that many of the credits are similar in scope to the current LEED-CI rating system. (You can review the current draft of LEED for Retail: Commercial Interiors here, http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=4503).

In my personal opinion, it’d be worthwhile to try for a LEED-CI certification now as opposed to waiting for the release of the new rating system. Find yourself a qualified LEED-AP, or LEED Restaurant Consultant, sit down and do a preliminary review of the LEED-CI v3 checklist to see where you stand currently and that will allow you to determine if you’re on-track for your certification goals.

Good luck!
Sarah Gudeman, LEED AP