Hooray! This is the LAST credit in the LAST section of the entire LEED for Homes Reference Manual. (I should qualify this: there is one more section – AE 2: Education of Building Manager. But it only applies to multifamily buildings with more than five units, and it is the same as AE 1 for individual homeowners.) I have many thoughts and comments about the getting here, finally, which I will save for another post — because this post is about creating public awareness of the features and benefits of a specific LEED for Homes project. Additionally, this is not my last post about points. We need to go for some Exemplary Performance points, which I will address tomorrow.
In this credit, we can get one point for promoting general awareness by doing at least three of the following activities:
1. Hold an advertised, attended public open house that lasts at least four hours per day on at least four weekends or participate in a green building exhibition or tour. The home or building must display at least four informational stations about the LEED for Homes featrues (and/or offer a guided tour).
The open house part is not something that we would realistically do. We are moved into our home, not selling it, we have two small children, and as much as I want to share the wonderful features of a LEED home, I can hardly clean up the house enough to have friends over. We would be open to participating in a green building tour, but we haven’t been asked. We have been asked to participate in the AIA (architects) tour, but have yet done that. Let’s see what else:
2. Publish a website with at least two pages that provides detailed information about the features and benefits of LEED homes.
Let’s see….I believe I have done that. This post today is my 75th post, which could really be called short articles, that includes detailed information about LEED for Homes. I started writing about LEED for Homes in May and have continued through this week. Yes, this qualifies.
3. Generate a newspaper article on the LEED for Homes project.
I have not done this yet, but think it could be easily accomplished if I think we can attain a point here.
4. Display LEED for homes signage, measuring six square feet or more, on the exterior of the home or building.
According to our LEED for Homes Provider, this signage is supposed to be up during construction, like when the builder hangs their sign out front to let everyone know who is building the house. Whoops. I must have forgotten about this part while we were building (or I just never even made it to the very end of the 300+ page LEED for Homes Reference Manual). I suppose I could hang a sign out right now (it should look like the image featured in this post), but I was hoping to hang up the plaque once we get certified.
Since we really only meet one of the requirements on this list, I am not sure if it’s worth it to try to get a newspaper article published without the possibility of a point. The manual does mention that if there are other activities that are not included in the list above, they may be counted if a “Credit Interpretation Request” is submitted and approved. So, given that this blog is much much more than a website as described in #2, I may end up submitting a CIR for another point. Right now, though, I don’t think we can claim the point.