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LEED v4.1

Existing Buildings
Sustainable Sites
Site Management

LEED CREDIT

EBOM-v4.1 SSc4: Site management 1 point

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SPECIAL REPORT

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Requirements

Conduct a site assessment to identify and document natural areas providing habitat. Have in place a site management plan that demonstrates how the following best practices are met:

  • Monitor and eradicate invasive and exotic plant species from natural habitat areas.
  • Manage snow and ice in ways that limit degradation of water quality, surrounding plants and soil health from chemical deicer applications.
  • Prevent erosion by maintaining vegetative cover, and restore any eroded soils.
  • Reduce noise and air pollution resulting from gasoline powered equipment.
  • Divert from landfills 100% of plant material waste for composting reuse.
  • Reduce fertilizer use to only as needed for plant health applications based on soil testing. Eliminate preventive applications of herbicides, pesticides and fungicides applying only as needed for occurrences.
  • Prepare an Integrated Pest Management plan.
  • Add one or more inches of organic matter mulch, such as compost, to soil surfaces in planting areas annually.
  • Irrigate vegetation, other than planted containers, only with automatic controlled systems utilizing either rain shutoff, moisture sensing or weather based controls.
  • Monitor irrigation systems at least bi-weekly during the operating season and correct any leaks, breaks, inappropriate water usage, or incorrect timing.
  • Store materials and equipment to prevent air and site contamination.
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What does it cost?

Cost estimates for this credit

On each BD+C v4 credit, LEEDuser offers the wisdom of a team of architects, engineers, cost estimators, and LEED experts with hundreds of LEED projects between then. They analyzed the sustainable design strategies associated with each LEED credit, but also to assign actual costs to those strategies.

Our tab contains overall cost guidance, notes on what “soft costs” to expect, and a strategy-by-strategy breakdown of what to consider and what it might cost, in percentage premiums, actual costs, or both.

This information is also available in a full PDF download in The Cost of LEED v4 report.

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Addenda

7/25/2019 – Updated: 11/6/2020
Reference Guide Correction
Description of change:
Further Explanation section added with the following:
"Table 1 is similar to LEED v4, with the following modification:
Operational element
Snow and ice removal

Example site maintenance activities
• Use environmentally preferred deicers rather than calcium chloride or sodium chloride. Examples include those that contain calcium magnesium acetate. For more guidance on environmentally preferred products, refer to the EPA’s Safer Choice standard for deicers:
• Reduce area treated with calcium chloride or sodium chloride to 50% of total deiced area by discontinuing deicer applications in low-traffic areas or converting some areas to environmentally preferred deicer.
• If deicer blend containing calcium chloride or sodium chloride in addition to other compounds is used, demonstrate compliance via reduced treatment area path."

Reference Standards section added with the following:
"EPA, Safer Choice Standards for Deicers: https://www.epa.gov/saferchoice/products#type=Deicers&sector=Business"
Campus Applicable
No
Internationally Applicable:
Yes
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Documentation toolkit

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LEEDuser expert

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Jenny Carney

LEED Fellow, RESET AP, Fitwel Ambassador

WSP
Vice President

Get the inside scoop

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USGBC logo

© Copyright U.S. Green Building Council, Inc. All rights reserved.

Requirements

Conduct a site assessment to identify and document natural areas providing habitat. Have in place a site management plan that demonstrates how the following best practices are met:

  • Monitor and eradicate invasive and exotic plant species from natural habitat areas.
  • Manage snow and ice in ways that limit degradation of water quality, surrounding plants and soil health from chemical deicer applications.
  • Prevent erosion by maintaining vegetative cover, and restore any eroded soils.
  • Reduce noise and air pollution resulting from gasoline powered equipment.
  • Divert from landfills 100% of plant material waste for composting reuse.
  • Reduce fertilizer use to only as needed for plant health applications based on soil testing. Eliminate preventive applications of herbicides, pesticides and fungicides applying only as needed for occurrences.
  • Prepare an Integrated Pest Management plan.
  • Add one or more inches of organic matter mulch, such as compost, to soil surfaces in planting areas annually.
  • Irrigate vegetation, other than planted containers, only with automatic controlled systems utilizing either rain shutoff, moisture sensing or weather based controls.
  • Monitor irrigation systems at least bi-weekly during the operating season and correct any leaks, breaks, inappropriate water usage, or incorrect timing.
  • Store materials and equipment to prevent air and site contamination.

In the end, LEED is all about documentation. LEEDuser’s Documentation Toolkit, for premium members only, saves you time and helps you avoid mistakes with:

  • Calculators to help assess credit compliance.
  • Tracking spreadsheets for materials purchases.
  • Spreadsheets and forms to give to subs and other team members.
  • Guidance documents on arcane LEED issues.
  • Sample templates to help guide your narratives and LEED Online submissions.
  • Examples of actual submissions from certified LEED projects.

LEEDuser expert

headshot

Jenny Carney

LEED Fellow, RESET AP, Fitwel Ambassador

WSP
Vice President

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