SPECIAL REPORT
LEEDuser expert
Samantha Longshore
Transwestern Sustainability Services
Sustainability Advisor
SPECIAL REPORT
LEEDuser’s viewpoint
Frank advice from LEED experts
LEED is changing all the time, and every project is unique. Even seasoned professionals can miss a critical detail and lose a credit or even a prerequisite at the last minute. Our expert advice guides our LEEDuser Premium members and saves you valuable time.
Credit language
© Copyright U.S. Green Building Council, Inc. All rights reserved.
Intent
To preserve ecological integrity and encourage environmentally sensitive site management practices that provide a clean, well-maintained, and safe building exterior while supporting high-performance building operations and integration into the surrounding landscape.
Requirements
Establishment
Create and implement a site management policy that employs best management practices to reduce harmful chemical use, energy waste, water waste, air pollution, solid waste, and/or chemical runoff for all of the following operational elements on the building and grounds:
- use of low emissions maintenance equipment;
- snow and ice removal;
- cleaning of building exterior, pavement, and other impervious surfaces;
- erosion and sedimentation control (for ongoing operations and for construction activity);
- organic waste management (returned to the site or diverted from landfills);
- invasive and exotic plant species management (through monitoring and eradication);
- fertilizer use (testing soils before using fertilizer to prevent overapplication of nutrients);
- irrigation management (monitor irrigation systems manually or with automated systems at least every two weeks during the operating season for appropriate water usage, system times, leaks, or breaks); and
- storage of materials and equipment.
Performance
None.
See all forum discussions about this credit »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.
Learn more about The Cost of LEED v4 »Documentation toolkit
The motherlode of cheat sheets
LEEDuser’s Documentation Toolkit is loaded with calculators to help assess credit compliance, tracking spreadsheets for materials, sample templates to help guide your narratives and LEED Online submissions, and examples of actual submissions from certified LEED projects for you to check your work against. To get your plaque, start with the right toolkit.
Get the inside scoop
Our editors have written a detailed analysis of nearly every LEED credit, and LEEDuser premium members get full access. We’ll tell you whether the credit is easy to accomplish or better left alone, and we provide insider tips on how to document it successfully.
© Copyright U.S. Green Building Council, Inc. All rights reserved.
Intent
To preserve ecological integrity and encourage environmentally sensitive site management practices that provide a clean, well-maintained, and safe building exterior while supporting high-performance building operations and integration into the surrounding landscape.
Requirements
Establishment
Create and implement a site management policy that employs best management practices to reduce harmful chemical use, energy waste, water waste, air pollution, solid waste, and/or chemical runoff for all of the following operational elements on the building and grounds:
- use of low emissions maintenance equipment;
- snow and ice removal;
- cleaning of building exterior, pavement, and other impervious surfaces;
- erosion and sedimentation control (for ongoing operations and for construction activity);
- organic waste management (returned to the site or diverted from landfills);
- invasive and exotic plant species management (through monitoring and eradication);
- fertilizer use (testing soils before using fertilizer to prevent overapplication of nutrients);
- irrigation management (monitor irrigation systems manually or with automated systems at least every two weeks during the operating season for appropriate water usage, system times, leaks, or breaks); and
- storage of materials and equipment.
Performance
None.
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
Samantha Longshore
Transwestern Sustainability Services
Sustainability Advisor