I have restrooms in the

Marcio, if the building is inside your project boundary, then you should consider the applicability of all credits and prerequisites to that space.

Hi Marcio,

There might be a slight confusion. Is the building you're talking about INSIDE your LEED Boundary? Or it is inside the project boundary (property) but not considered as part of the to-be certified project? If it is INSIDE your LEED Boundary, you MUST take it into account for every single prerrequisite and credit you're attempting. Remember that the project boundary is not necessarily the same as your LEED boundary.

Hi Marcio,

The details of your project scope are a bit unclear but I would recommend reviewing the “Supplemental Guidance to the Minimum Program Requirements” document on the USGBC website (specifically page 24, “When facilities included in submittals may be excluded from the LEED project boundary”).

Showers that contribute to SSc4.2 but that are located outside of the LEED project boundary and scope of work should NOT be included within the calculation. Unless you retrofitted the shower fixture as part of your scope of work, the project team may not take credit for fixtures located outside the LPB nor are they required to include offsite fixtures.

Note that if the shower facilities will be shared with other occupants in the neighboring building, then the use of the shower facilities must either be exclusive to occupants for the LEED-NC project or a sufficient quantity of shower facilities must be provided for all occupants with access to the amenities.

Hope helpful!

I run into this on many projects. The shower by which the LEED project will comply with the requirements for SSc4.2 is within 200 yards of the entry of the LEED project building, but not within the LEED project boundary. Generally, it has been in an existing building that has sufficient showers already.
What I understand above is that if the showers being used to earn SSc4.2 are outside of the LEED project boundary, those shower-heads cannot be included in WEp1 calc tables except if the shower-heads are changed as part of the scope of work.
In that case, are we required to include them, or are we allowed to include them as an option if it works in our favor? It would seem that we would need to have a special user group that includes all the FTEs of the other building as well, correct? I am speaking of a LEED NC 2009 commercial project.
Thanks!

Hi Susan. If you include the showers as part of the scope of work AND want to include them in WEp1, then you will have to adjust your LEED boundary. Otherwise, no, they should not be included in WEp1. It is simpler just to leave the showers out of the project certification. It could also be percieved as gerrymandering, if you include only certain items that fall outside the LEED boundary just to achieve a credit without including the site and the building they are attached to. I would be interested to hear other opinions/experiences on this topic . . .

correct...project teams cannot take credit for fixtures located outside the LEED-NC project boundary; showers that contribute to SSc4.2 but that are located outside of the LEED-NC project boundary should not be included within this calculation.