John, thanks for your question on how an awning on a building could have an impact in LEED certification.

For LEED-NC Prereq 2 and Credit 1 (Minimum and Optimize Energy Performance), there are three ways to demonstrate the anticipated energy usage of the facility. These are through a whole building energy simulation, or a prescriptive compliance path using either the ASHRAE Advanced Energy Design Guide or Advanced Buildings Core Performance Guide. Typically a whole building energy simulation is used and compared to the energy baseline calculated using Appendix G of ASHRAE 90.1-2007.

So in order for you to demonstrate that your awnings will help achieve this LEED prerequisite and credit, the awning would have to be included in the energy simulation to show exactly how much energy it will save. You'll have to get with the mechanical engineers who are doing the simulations and have them do this calculation. They could run the simulation with and without your awning on the same facility, and that would show exactly how much energy should be saved if your awning is installed.

If your particular project is using one of the prescriptive paths, the concept is the same. The engineer would just need to follow the prescriptive measures with and without the awning to demonstrate the energy savings. It's a little more difficult than the energy simulation but can be done.

Hope this helps! Good luck with your project.

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