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NC-2009 WEp1:Water Use Reduction—20% Reduction

High Trans. Building - No fixtures for Trans. Occupants

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James Del Monaco
Sustainability Director, PE
P2S Engineering, Inc.
LEEDuser Basic Member
48 thumbs up

I have a 7,000 SF Physical Education Building which has a majority of the space decicated to PE type activities such as dancing, weightlifting, etc. Otherwise there are two small office spaces for staff with a single-occupant restroom for staff only. Given that this is a highly transient space and the transient occupants do not have access to this "Staff Only" restroom, do I need to include the transient occupants in the WE calculations? Should I assume they use the nearest restrooms in an adjacent building and assign these fixtures to this group for use? Or can I leave them out all together. If I leave them out this means that I only have 2-3 FTE occupants and 0 transients. My other concern is consistency between credits. If I list transient occupants in the other credits but then exclude them from this credit the occupants would not be used consistently. Thoughts or feedback from similar situations?

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Fri, 08/10/2012 - 08:28

I feel best is to leave out the transients and assign only the staff members for the "Staff Only" restroom. this will reflect the actual scenario as always encouraged by LEED. it will be required for you to mention in a narrative why you excluded the transients (To reflect actual use). including transients for other credits as appropriate would be acceptable since you have justified the exclusion for this credit in your narrative.
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James Del Monaco
Sustainability Director, PE
P2S Engineering, Inc.
LEEDuser Basic Member
48 thumbs up

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 17:59

Excluding the transients would benefit our project since they'll be using the existing fixtures in an adjacent building. I just want to make sure that the GBCI Reviewer does not feel that we are excluding these to benefit our project. Under LEED CI, if the CI space does not include any fixtures, the project team needs to assume they use fixtures in another location in the building in order to achieve WEc3. This would seem to be a similar situation (although we are using NC) in that our transients do not have access to fixtures in our building.

Tue, 09/11/2012 - 21:56

Hi James, If your building transients do not have access to fixtures within the LEED-NC building/scope of work then it is reasonable to exclude them. Include a narrative describing the project parameters (Staff Only restrooms) and why the occupancy numbers are not consistent between credits.
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James Del Monaco
Sustainability Director, PE
P2S Engineering, Inc.
LEEDuser Basic Member
48 thumbs up

Wed, 09/12/2012 - 00:37

Carlie, Thanks for the response. Do you know of any specific CIRs or other documents from the USGBC that supplement your information. Have you had any specific projects which have used this approach? Thanks.

Wed, 09/12/2012 - 01:22

Hi James, I do not have any LEED Interpretations to point to but from past experience with NC projects, unless you retrofitted the fixtures in the other existing building as part of your LEED-NC project scope of work, then the project team may not take credit for fixtures located outside the LEED project boundary, nor are they required to include offsite fixtures. Exceptions may occur, for example when an addition itself does not include any bathroom facilities but existing facilities (immediately adjacent to the addition within the main building) were renovated as part of the addition project. Although the LEED-CI criteria you mention is noteworthy, LEED-CI approaches this prerequisite and credit differently (since tenants moving into existing buildings may likely be utilizing the base building fixtures outside their scope). Hope helpful!

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