14.3 Project Stages, Skipping Preliminary Certification & Pricing Iterations
Key Takeaways
- Existing buildings skip the Design Audit; new construction approaching completion may opt to skip it; and major renovations affecting more than 25% of major elements may opt to undertake one.
- To go straight to Final certification, the team selects "Post-Construction" as the Certification Stage in the Design Tab of each subproject, and may still need to submit both design phase and construction phase documentation.
- Skipping Preliminary Certification can reduce both the certification timeline and Auditor fees, but forfeits the design-stage marketing and green finance benefits of a Preliminary Certificate.
- The certification fee includes exactly one Preliminary and one Final submission; each further submission costs $999, which is the number an Expert should price iterations against.
- The earlier EDGE enters the design process, the cheaper compliance is — measures chosen at concept stage cost far less than measures retrofitted after design freeze.
14.3 Project Stages, Skipping Preliminary Certification & Pricing Iterations
Exam Focus: Sub-topics 6.6 "Stages of a project and relation of EDGE certification to them" and 6.9 "Typical number of iterations to assume in pricing, can a final cert be offered without doing pre-cert" are both named in the official outline. The second is unusually specific and is worth knowing exactly.
Mapping EDGE onto the Project Timeline
| Project stage | EDGE activity | Why it matters here |
|---|---|---|
| Concept / feasibility | Model in the free EDGE App; test measure combinations | Cheapest point to change orientation, massing, WWR and structural system |
| Schematic design | Firm up the measure set; identify the certification path | Envelope and system decisions lock in here |
| Detailed design | Register with the certifier; contract the Auditor; assemble evidence | Registration fee due immediately; Auditor contract required before applying |
| Design complete | Design Audit → Preliminary Certificate | Enables pre-marketing and green finance |
| Procurement / construction | Guard the specification through value engineering; update the model for substitutions | Where measures are quietly lost |
| Practical completion | Occupancy permit issued; the 12-month clocks start | Site Audit deadline and Preliminary Certificate expiry |
| Post-construction | Site Audit → EDGE Certificate | Final verification |
| One year of operation | Optional EDGE Zero Carbon | Requires 75% occupancy in the reporting year |
The general economic rule holds here as everywhere in design: the cost of a change rises steeply with project stage. A window-to-wall ratio reduced at concept costs nothing; the same reduction after facade procurement is a redesign. This is the strongest argument an Expert has for early engagement.
Can a Final Certificate Be Issued Without a Preliminary One?
Yes. This is the direct answer to sub-topic 6.9, and GBCI states it in several places.
Who skips, who may skip, who probably should not
| Situation | Rule |
|---|---|
| Existing buildings | Will skip the Design Audit |
| New construction under construction or recently completed | Recommended to skip the design stage audit and move directly to post-construction |
| New construction projects approaching construction completion | May opt to skip the Design Audit |
| Major renovations (greater than 25% of major elements) | May opt to undertake a Design Audit |
| New construction still in design | Should normally do both stages, to capture the Preliminary Certificate's marketing and finance value |
GBCI puts the recommendation plainly: if a building is under construction or has been recently completed, we recommend skipping the design stage audit (Preliminary Certification) and moving directly to the post-construction stage (Final EDGE Certification).
How to do it mechanically
In the EDGE App, select "Post-Construction" as the Certification Stage within the Design Tab of each subproject. Note it is set per subproject, not once for the master project.
The catch
Note the project team may need to submit both design phase and construction phase documentation outlined in the User Guides.
Skipping the Preliminary audit does not mean skipping the design-stage evidence. The Auditor still needs to establish that the design met the Standard as well as that the building was built accordingly. Teams that hear "skip Preliminary" as "half the documentation" are in for a difficult Site Audit.
What is gained and lost
Gained: a shorter overall certification timeline, and potentially reduced Auditor fees, since one audit cycle replaces two. For already-constructed projects the total certification fee is paid in a single payment rather than split across two stages.
Lost: the Preliminary Certificate itself — and with it the ability to pre-market units with the EDGE brand, to support green building permit applications, and to unlock early-stage green construction finance. For a developer selling off-plan, that loss usually outweighs the fee saving. For an owner-occupier certifying a completed asset, it does not.
How Many Iterations to Assume When Pricing
The published anchor is precise:
The project certification fee includes one Preliminary Certification and one Final EDGE Certification submission per project. Projects that require additional submissions will be assessed a fee of $999 for each additional submission.
So the baseline assumption is one submission per stage. Anything beyond that is a chargeable event, and an Expert who has not priced for it absorbs the cost or has an awkward conversation.
What a submission does and does not include
A single submission still includes an internal review cycle: the Auditor performs an initial review, the team responds to comments, and the Auditor performs a second review and recommendation. Responding to a request for information is not an additional submission. An additional submission is a fresh application for a certification decision — for instance after a denial where the team chooses to resubmit rather than appeal, or where a project needs a further certification decision.
Pricing an Expert engagement against this
Build the fee around the events that actually consume effort:
- Base modelling and evidence assembly — one Design Audit package and one Site Audit package.
- Response to audit comments — assume at least one full round per stage; that is the published process, not an exception.
- Re-modelling after value engineering — the single largest unbudgeted risk. When a contractor substitutes glazing or an air-conditioning unit, the model must be updated and the evidence replaced.
- Contingency for additional submissions — priced explicitly, with the $999 certifier fee flagged as a client cost separate from your own.
State in the engagement letter how many re-modelling rounds are included and what triggers an additional fee. An Expert who quotes a lump sum for "EDGE certification support" on a project with an aggressive value engineering culture is pricing an unbounded liability.
The Value Engineering Watch
Because it is where certifications are actually lost, it deserves a procedure rather than good intentions:
- Give the client a written schedule of certification-critical specifications at the end of design, listing every item whose substitution would reduce a claimed measure.
- Ask to review substitutions before they are approved, not after installation.
- Re-run the model on each proposed substitution and report the new headroom above 20% in the affected category.
- Where a substitution would breach a threshold, present the alternative recovery measure and its cost alongside it, so the client makes an informed trade rather than an accidental one.
Can a project receive a Final EDGE Certificate without first obtaining a Preliminary Certificate?
A team decides to skip Preliminary Certification and go straight to Final. What documentation should they expect to provide?
How many certification submissions does the standard GBCI certification fee include, and what happens beyond that?
A developer selling apartments off-plan asks whether to skip Preliminary Certification to save time and Auditor fees. What is the strongest counter-argument?