green walls/vertical greenery

November 29, 2010

Pablo Fortunato Suarez

Principal ESD Consultant/Architect
GreenArc Sustainable Building & Architecture

LEEDuser Basic Member

253 thumbs up

November 29, 2010

My questions for green walls/vertical greenery:
1) Would "green walls*" or "vertical greenery*" qualify for credit point under this category?
2) If so how would computations be for coverage area?
3) If not would this qualify for Innovation credit?

*green walls or vertical greenery - refer to plants (creepers or crawlers) growing on walls using various methods from as simple as letting vines grow on mesh or lines, to racks that contain planting medium; these are used as part of wall treatment in facades.

- also posted in related credit at EBOM

Post a reply

Tristan Roberts

Representative
Vermont House of Representatives

LEEDuser Expert

11474 thumbs up

November 29, 2010 - 7:58 am

I don't think they would qualify in terms of how this credit is typically calculated.I would say you'd have to make an argument for including them, and it would be up to the reviewer to accept it or not. A CIR may be needed to know whether this will work.What's your argument? Let us know how it goes.

Lauren Sparandara

Sustainability Manager
Google

LEEDuser Expert

997 thumbs up

June 16, 2011 - 3:14 pm

Hi Pablo and Tristan,

Any new information on this approach? We wanted to try it too for our tight urban project site.

Roof areas count for urban areas so why not the visual surfaces of vines growing up the side of a building as part of a green screen?

Has anyone else submitted a CIR?

Thanks!
Lauren

Phillip Cook

WGE

LEEDuser Basic Member

5 thumbs up

April 30, 2014 - 12:16 am

I guess this option does not look good - given that no-one has responded to this. I was also hoping that vertical wall plantings with natives would be acceptable.

Tristan Roberts

Representative
Vermont House of Representatives

LEEDuser Expert

11474 thumbs up

April 30, 2014 - 11:08 am

On green walls, see the FAQs under SSc5.1.

Phillip Cook

WGE

LEEDuser Basic Member

5 thumbs up

April 30, 2014 - 9:18 pm

Thanks a lot Tristan. For reference of others looking at this FAQ says -
"No. LEED Interpretation #5310 issued 3/4/2008, states that "Although living walls or vertical landscaping may provide limited habitat for certain species adapted to urban areas, the credit language does not currently allow for use of this approach in calculating area compliance." This Interpetation also notes that green walls cannot contribute to SSc5.2."

Guillermo Hernandez Espinoza

Civil Engineer, LEED AP BD+C

LEEDuser Basic Member

8 thumbs up

January 2, 2019 - 6:38 pm

Hi everyone, it's been a while since someone talked about this matter. I'll like to know if someone did really try to submit it? Because I have the case of an urban site with very low open space that may qualify if the green wall can be added to the total.
Thx in advance!