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Credit language straight from USGBC
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22 Comments
Core fixtures included?
I'd like to hear other people's opinions on this direction included above:
"Commercial Interiors projects must include in the water-use calculations any water fixtures that are being used by occupants, even if the installation of the fixtures is not within the scope of the project. For example, an office project that is not updating the base buildingwill still need to include the core bathroom fixtures in the LEED water use calculation."
I've heard from numerous sources that core fixtures only count towards this calc with a full floor tenant. For tenants who are only in part of the floor, you only need to include the fixtures within their tenant space (eg their scope of work), not the core.
Devon Bertram replied Consultant, YRG sustainability Sep 11 2009
GBCI has confirmed that all fixtures used by the occupants need to be included in the calculations. The following email was received from GBCI:
"Existing fixtures and/or those in common areas of the buildings are still to be included in the LEED 2009 WEp1 calculations (as they were in the LEED-CIv2.0 WEc1 calculations) if they are used by the occupants of the LEED-CI tenant space regardless of whether or not other tenants share these fixtures."
Kathleen Burke replied Apr 27 2010
I have read comments both ways about using the common area toilets in the calculations when preparing certificaiton submittals for a tenant that has no water closets in the space, only a break room sink. In our case, the shell building did not try to get any WE credits. Of course in the 2009 Commercial Interiors there is a Prerequisite to use 20% less water than the water use basline calculated for the tenant space-my consultant is telling me we only have to calculate fixtures in our tenant space. Seeing your comment reinforces my belief that you have to use the common area facilities as well. Was this email in response to your CIRCredit Interpretation Ruling. Used by design team members experiencing difficulties in the application of a LEED prerequisite or credit to a project. Typically, difficulties arise when specific issues are not directly addressed by LEED information/guide submittal and is it published on the GBCI site? I don't see it in the CIR search.
Devon Bertram replied Consultant, YRG sustainability Apr 28 2010
Kathleen,
This information is not from a formal CIRCredit Interpretation Ruling. Used by design team members experiencing difficulties in the application of a LEED prerequisite or credit to a project. Typically, difficulties arise when specific issues are not directly addressed by LEED information/guide submittal, but an answer from an email inquiry to GBCI. WEp1 is a bit different than other CI credits (usually only focused on items within your scope) as it needs to include all fixtures that are used by the occupants, whether they are within the tenant scope or not. Therefore, it seems as though the common area fixtures need to be included in your WE calculations.
Common area toilets
Requiring tenants to include base building toilet fixtures in their calculations will ultimately discourage some tenants from pursuing LEED. We have recently renewed our lease and intend to pursue LEED Gold for our new space build-out. Unfortunately, we have no control over the base building plumbing fixtures. Since we are committed to a "green" design, we will still pursue whatever points we can, even if we are unable to obtain LEED certification because we can't meet this pre-req.
Less committed tenants may decide that a green design is not worth the effort if they have no chance to obtain certification. What a shame.
Devon Bertram replied Consultant, YRG sustainability Oct 14 2009
There may opportunity to work with landlords and negotiate renovations to base building fixtures in efforts to install more efficient fixtures, especially if a project is pursuing a "green" design or LEED certification. This has benefits for both the tenant and the landlord.
Even if base building plumbing fixtures are out of your scope, you can incorporate water efficient fixtures in your pantries, kitchens, etc. that do fall within your scope. Additionally, aerators are a low-cost strategy that can be easily installed, and may be easily ok'd by the landlord and incorporated into base building faucets to help the project achieve WEp1.
USGBC provides additional guidance
The USGBC just posted a new document providing additional guidance on WEp1 and WEc3. This document covers fixture groups, daily use calcs, dual flush flow rates, and autocontrol faucets. Link here: http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=6493
Dave Intner replied Firmitas Architecture & Planning Dec 21 2009
The document doesn't clarify the use of Janitorial/ Mop sinks very well. We have a project that is tracking just barely above 40%, but how we treat the janitor sinks could drop us a hair below that. Four points (including an RP bonus point) are on the line for us.
There's only a brief mention of janitor sinks in the reference guide (it shows up in Table 1 on pg. 103, grouped with Kitchen faucets, and is mentioned peripherally in the implementation section on pg. 102). Perplexingly, there's no "janitor sink" pull-down in the LEED Online template (there was in v2.2), so I'm thinking we just use the Kitchen tab? Then for usage, we were thinking we would have the owner estimate the number of days the maintenance staff comes to clean, how many times they'd fill a bucket during a typical shift, and how big the bucket is (assume 80% of capacity used, to account for cleanser concentrate and the fact that you can't move a bucket that's filled to the brim without it spilling everywhere). Does this approach seem sound?
Devon Bertram replied Consultant, YRG sustainability Jan 05 2010
Your approach for calculating the janitor sink usage is reasonable, but it seems you don't need to include janitor's sinks in the calculations. The NC, Schools, and CS requirements state that calculations include “water closets, urinals, lavatory faucets, showers, kitchen sink faucets, and pre-rinse spray valves.” As there is no drop-down and they aren't included in the list above, not including them in the calculations should be ok.
USGBC does reference that some faucets with low flow rates are not appropriate, especially where the volume of water is predetermined (p. 102 of ID+C 2009). For best practice, you can maximize the efficiency of the janitor's sink with a high efficiency faucet or a foot pedal-operated faucet.
Janitor Sinks
The EPAct of 1992 does not include Janitor’s Sinks in its regulation. See the addenda posted on November 2, 2009. For the UPCUniform Plumbing Code and IPCInternational Plumbing Code Standards Tables shown in the 2009 Reference guides, it states to remove the text “and janitor” so it becomes “Kitchen sink faucets”.
Dave Intner replied Firmitas Architecture & Planning Feb 26 2010
Thanks, Eric; I'd missed that in the addenda. So... based on that, it appears that janitor sinks are no longer required to be tracked for LEED? I guess maybe they're now considering this a "process" water use whereas in previous versions it was base building. It doesn't much matter in our case either way... the 30 or so gallons projected to be used by our project's janitorial staff is a drop in the proverbial (and literal) bucket; it barely moves our calculations by a percentage point.
Lauren Glasscock replied Sr. Sustainability Professional, KEMA Services, Inc. Aug 04 2010
Janitor Sinks do not need to be included in LEED calculations.
What if a tenant has no water use fixtures?
Per USGBC's Addenda for LEED 2009-CI, it states to replace the word "building" with "tenant space" for both WEp1 and WEc1. Effective date of 11/2/2009.
This seems to significantly change the old standard of anything the tenants use must be counted in the calculation. From my reading of this, if a tenant space does not have any water use fixtures then there's no possibility for a 20% savings to meet the Prereq. Will this addenda exclude some CI projects from gaining LEED?
Shannon Gray replied Consultant, YRG sustainability Apr 02 2010
Hi Bill,
This change is only in language and not in intent or requirement. The older CI rating systems used “tenant space” and it seems like the use of “building” for 2009 was just an error in terminology. So, if your tenant space does not have fixtures within their scope they are required to calculate this prerequisite using the fixtures the tenants will be using within the facility.
Hopefully that clears things up for you.
Shannon
Lauren Glasscock replied Sr. Sustainability Professional, KEMA Services, Inc. Aug 04 2010
Have you guys seen the LEED-CI Addenda from July 19? There is a very important footnote:
Projects where fixtures or fixture fittings are not within the tenant space are exempt from WE Prerequisite 1.
Basically, I understand this to mean that if you don't have fixtures in your tenant space, then you can meet the prerequisite through this footnote.
However, if you'd like to get points you have to try to convince your building owner to reduce their water use through their fixtures choices.
Kathy Buck replied Senior Project Manager, Neumann/Smith Architecture Aug 04 2010
Lauren:
See the topic "Confusion with LEEDuser Birds Eye View of LEED CI 2009 WEp1" and the response from Tristan below.
Do building showers count?
We are working on the prereq. and are at 28%. If we add a low flow shower head to the base building showers we can get past 30%. The credit shows showers under the residential category, but since we need the showers for SS 3.2 I was wondering if we could add them in anyway.
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Mar 31 2010
Robert, if the project is pursuing SSc3.2, showers must be included in WEp1/WEc1 calcs (even if the showers are offsite, by the way). So that's good news for you, right?
Confusion with LEEDuser Birds Eye View of LEED CI 2009 WEp1
Question 1: At the very bottom of the Birds Eye View for this credit, under the heading of "LEED-CI with no plumbing fixtures?" states the following:
“LEED-CI projects that do not have any plumbing fixtures or fittings in their scope of work are exempt from WEp1. They also cannot achieve WEc1, even by counting fixtures used in the base building. The one exception is if off-site showers are being used to earn SSc3.2, they must be included in calculations for both WEp1 and WEc1”.
Where in the reference manual (or addenda) is this exception stated? This statement on LEEDuser is the ONLY place where I've seen this stated.
Question 2: Our small tenant (not a whole-floor tenant) CI project only has a kitchen sink in the break room. The core toilets are outside of the tenant space; while they were renovated in 2007, the building Owner is not willing to update them any further. We are pursuing SSc3.2 and the shower facilities are in an adjacent building. From the commentaries above, I think that we're faced with including the core toilets, j.c., our new kitchen sink fuacet AND the showers that we'll be counting toward SSc3.2 in the consideration of WEp1 and WEc1... and if we don't meet the minimum 20% reduction, LEED certification is not possible. Do I understand this correctly?
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Jul 29 2010
This is not a new LEED policy but it was just added to the credit requirements in the July 2010 LEED addenda. You can see the key text as a footnote in the credit language tab above. The idea is that projects without water fixtures in the tenant scope should be able to achieve LEED certification so WEp1 is waived. If the base building has efficient fixtures, these projects can earn credit through SSc1.
For your project, I would include the kitchen faucet and the shower, but the toilet is outside of your scope so is not included in WEp1 or WEc1. Do you agree? And yes, you could need the 20% reduction from those two fixtures to be eligible for LEED.
Retail Customer
i have some question here. i did a calculation of the number of retail customer base on table 3. (pg 105) which i choose to use retail space under " service". expected customer is 28ppl per day.
then page 104 said that, 20% of the retail will use the common restroom(which is 6ppl) at the project space and the ratio should be 1 to 1 sex ratio.
when i want to insert the value for fixture group of "urinal", shall i insect 6 retail customer or half? how do i know the 6 person will be all male or mix?
please help.
Tristan Roberts replied Editor – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, LLC Aug 20 2010
Following your logic it seems clear that 6 customers can be entered for the restroom, and you can assume a 1:1 ratio so half will be relevant to the urinal.
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