We got a response back from GBCI today for WEp3 after asking about the metering requirement for the "associated grounds". Our project, part of a college campus, has a LEED site boundary that for the most part is irrigated as part of a larger irrigation loop fed from a different building. The entire loop is sub-metered with an abatement meter, but our specific LEED boundary isn't sub-metered, as is typical for campus projects and the somewhat arbitrary LEED boundaries. We were told we have to provide engineering calcs estimating the landscaped area in our LEED boundary to comply with WEp3 combined with the fact that the irrigation is being sub-metered for a slightly different area. I assume for reporting the client will have to prorate the monthly water usage for the irrigation loop using these calcs. Thought others may want to see.
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Nuttanee Vongveeranonchai
2 thumbs up
March 11, 2018 - 3:50 am
Nathan,
Thank you for sharing this.
Group Approach of WEp Building-Level Water Metering states ‘Potable water used for landscape irrigation must be tracked in any of three ways: by including it with a single building, by installing a dedicated meter, or by installing multiple meters’ whereas Group Approach of WE Water Metering says ‘All buildings in the group can be served by the same submeter for irrigation systems, boilers, and reclaimed water, provided all the water used by the group is captured’.
It seems the prerequisite requires submetering dedicated for landscape area within LEED project boundary which is more stringent than the related credit that allows one submeter for the shared landscape.
Is my understanding correct?
Ricardo Sá
Director of SustainabilityEdifícios Saudáveis Consultores (503 910 767)
84 thumbs up
January 23, 2020 - 10:06 am
Hi Nathan,
did you get any feedback regarding your issue? The aggregate measurement of the whole landscaped area was considered compliant or was it necessary to install sub meters for the irrigation inside LEED boundary?
Best regards,
Nathan Gauthier
Director of FM Integration and SustainabilityShawmut Design and Construction
22 thumbs up
January 23, 2020 - 10:32 am
My post above was sharing the direction they gave us. Can use meter for entire loop if engineering calcs allow pulling out the LEED portion.
See below for the exact response. Stupid logic (need to understand water use specifically within the artificial LEED boundary) but easy spreadsheet calculations to provide USGBC what they want.
Thank you for contacting GBCI regarding how to address project site irrigation (WEc3) when the site is part of a larger site (campus) loop. I sincerely apologize for the length of time it has taken us to respond to your inquiry. We are dealing with a very large volume of technical inquiries and apologize for any inconvenience.
The intent of the prerequisite is to help project teams understand how much water a building and its associated site are using. For this project, the metered loop covers landscaping in the project and around the surrounding buildings, which does not enable facility managers to manage and understand site water usage within the LEED project boundary.
For prerequisite compliance, is there an alternate way for your project team to identify how much irrigation water is being used within the project boundary? For prerequisite compliance, GBCI would accept an engineering calculation that accurately reflects the water consumption of the landscaped area within the project boundary. You may submit this calculation in the special circumstances section of the credit along with a narrative. Please also reference this case # 01710681.