I never thought that you could use the same land and attribute it to both open space and habitat, but maybe you can. In the "Related Credits" section of the reference guide, the Habitat credit says that "Use of native vegetation ...may contribute to achieving the following credits:" and it lists Open Space. However, the Open Space credit does not mention Habitat in this way.
Any ideas as to whether this works according to GBCI/USGBC? Anybody submitted a project this way? Any guidance would be helpful as I've found zero information about this in CIR's, google, or LEEDuser.
Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11475 thumbs up
May 19, 2010 - 10:24 pm
Yes, you can double-dip here. This credit, SSc5.1, is focused on habitat. SSc5.2 is focused on open space in general, which can even include pedestrian-oriented hardscape (which is definitely not habitat except for urban dwellers).Habitat can usually also be counted as open space (and I only say "usually" and not "always" to be cautious, since there may be some exclusions I'm not thinking of). Open space will often not be habitat, however. Like the hardscape already mentioned.I haven't read anything saying you can't do this, and it would seem counter to the intent to exclude it. Similarly, why would you not allow recycled content materials to also get credit for being regionally produced.