Hot Tip

Eliminating turf grass, planting native and adaptive species, and not installing an irrigation system is the simplest and cheapest way to achieve this credit. It will also have several additional environmental and financial benefits not necessarily recognized by LEED, such as reducing mowing costs, energy use, emissions, pesticide and fertilizer needs, and maintenance. Start by evaluating this option, taking into account the owner’s expectations, the climate, and site conditions.

Some historic elements may call for finishes or adhesives that do not comply with the low-

Fixed partitions and office furniture apply to MRc3: Materials Reuse and not to MRc.1.2 Building Reuse.

Design style and aesthetics may be driving factors for preserving the interior finishes and elements.

Older buildings often contain hazardous materials, including asbestos, lead, and others. The building owner may need to conduct an ASTM E1527-05 Phase I Environmental Assessment by an environmental consultant, and if required, a Phase II assessment with a remediation plan to ensure a safe and healthy facility.

Design development may require community involvement in the case of an

In buildings with older or diverse fixtures, it may be difficult to find product documentation of flow and flush rates. Identify fixtures by brand and model information, and contact manufacturers for assistance.

If you have a pre-1993 building, and are planning on performing a major bathroom renovation as part of the overall LEED project, be sure to register the project with the USGBC before starting any retrofitting, in order to claim the less stringent 160% baseline case.

The key to successful documentation of this credit is proper setup of your building fixture groups in the LEED Online credit form. This part of the form can be confusing and is often misinterpreted.  Carefully review the instructions on creating these fixture groups and make sure that the credit form is displaying the correct values for occupancy and number of fixtures in your building when you are finished. For additional guidance on setting up these fixture usage groups, please reference guidelines published by USGBC (see Resources).

If indoor plumbing systems were substantially completed at different times for different parts of the building, use Option 4 (see below) to complete performance calculations using a weighted average water-use baseline.