I am working on a project that is a renovation and expansion of the amenity spaces in an existing office building. The amenity spaces consist of a café with dining area, tenant lounge, meeting spaces, and a fitness center with locker rooms. The only FTE employees within the LEED boundary would be the café staff. Should the office building tenants be counted as visitors in the indoor water use reduction calculations? Also the core toilet rooms are in closer proximity to the café than the locker rooms accessed through the fitness center away from the café area. Should the existing core toilet rooms be included in the indoor water use reduction calculations?
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emily reese moody
Sustainability Director, Certifications & ComplianceJacobs
LEEDuser Expert
452 thumbs up
September 27, 2021 - 11:52 am
Hi Allen,
I would probably include the core toilets if they are the more likely to be regularly used by your FTE, just as we should if we have an office tenant space with core toilets outside the leased area.
For the fitness/locker fixtures, I would assign a lower % of users based on what's appropriate for your project.
With both of these aspects, include a short narrative for the reviewers explaining your values.
For counting the office tenants as visitors...that's interesting. I can see it going either way. The ID+C Ref Guide does advise to not count retail customers in the calcs, though, so I'm not sure there is a clean answer, depending on how you see your visiting tenants. It'd likely be best to email LEED Coach and ask for this aspect. It wouldn't hurt to spell out your approach for other aspects above, too, while you're at it, and get clear guidance.
Please do post back with your decided approach if you get a chance!
Allen Cornett
Sustainable ConsultantINSPEC Sustainability Group LLC
49 thumbs up
September 27, 2021 - 2:29 pm
Thank you for your thoughts. This project is speculative and may not end up attempting LEED certification, but I will reach out to LEED Coach.
emily reese moody
Sustainability Director, Certifications & ComplianceJacobs
LEEDuser Expert
452 thumbs up
September 27, 2021 - 2:41 pm
One additional note: I've had projects where the core restrooms were outside the boundary, and were not beneficial to include in the credit calcs. For ID+C projects, you meet the Prereq by showing compliance with the fixtures that are within your project scope. If you want points under the Credit, that's where you include all fixtures anticipated to be used by the occupants. I've had existing buildings with older core fixtures, for example, where we were not eligible for any points under the Credit, so I showed savings for the Prereq only and did not pursue the Credit at all.