Impact of Different Space Types on LEED-NC v3 2009 Gold-Certified Projects in Poland

Abstract

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for New Construction and Renovation (LEED-NC), version 3 (v3)-certified projects include at least 13 different space types. However, the impact of space types on LEED certification strategies is not yet fully understood. This study assessed the impact of different building types on achieving LEED-NC v3 categories and credits in gold-certified projects in Poland. The exact Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test and Fisher’s exact 2 × 2 with Lancaster’s correction test were used to estimate the difference between four space types (i.e., through pairwise comparison) with small sample sizes (n): industrial manufacturing space (IMS) (n = 9), office space (OS) (n = 7), multi-family residential space (MRS) (n = 6), and lodging space (LS) (n = 8). With these sample sizes, meaningful conclusions could be drawn with these tests. Design structure: IMS and OS refer to two subgroups nested in the production group, while MRS and LS refer to two other subgroups nested in the live group. This design structure was used to perform the logical analysis. The results showed that the number of significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) (i) between two subgroups (IMS vs. OS) within the production group was 1 out of 46, and (ii) between two subgroups (MRS vs. LS) within the living group was 6 out of 46, while (iii) the difference between the production and living groups was 45 out of 184. When comparing the production and living groups, LEED indoor environmental quality credit achievements showed the largest contribution (37%) to the number of significant differences. The practical implication of the study is to offer recommendations on LEED certification strategies for production and living spaces.