ID+C v4 Pilot Credit

Hi Kathryn - I'm looking into this credit for a project of mine and am a little confused about the quantity that needs to be purchased. The credit requires the project to "purchase WRCs for 100% of project’s annual water budget for a 5 year contract." Does that mean we have to buy 5 years worth of annual water use or just 1 year but the contract is for 5 years? So, if our annual use is 1,000,000 gallons, do we buy 5,000,000 gallons worth of WRCs (5,000 WRCs) or just 1,000,000 gallons (1,000 WRCs)?

5,000,000

Thanks, Rex! Have you been through this process for a project? Did you work with BEF?

Hello, how do we calculate our annual water use? Is there a LEED specific method? Would we simply use the proposed indoor water use and outdoor water use to determine the annual water use? Thank you in advanced for the help.

Does anyone know whether the "annual water budget" used to calculate the quantity of Water Restoration Certificates is the total amount of water used by the project (from the indoor water use calculator) or the total amount of potable water used (from the credit calculation)?

Our ID+C project has a significant (+15%) source of non-potable water.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Hi Michael,

All potable water used on the projects must be included (indoor, outdoor, process, and appliance if applicable). Essentially, you need to include any water use addressed in the WE credits.

Annie -  Thanks.  That's what I assumed, but perhaps not what I had hoped.

How did you all calculate the process water use? I get that we'll find the indoor/outdoor water use from the relevant credit calculations but I'm not sure where I find the process water quantity.

Follow up question - If we are a medical office building pursuing NC certification, do we still have to offset process water from healthcare related systems? The way the credit is worded, I'm not sure if the requirement is specific to rating system or project type. We definitely have exam room sinks that are excluded from Indoor Water Use calculations.

Follow up question - If we are a medical office building pursuing NC certification, do we still have to offset process water from healthcare related systems? The way the credit is worded, I'm not sure if the requirement is specific to rating system or project type. We definitely have exam room sinks that are excluded from Indoor Water Use calculations.

Hello- has any one had issues with this being rejected because of their water use calculations? I am using the WE credits in addition to energy model outputs for humidification (the only process use in our design). I believe this to be accurate and will pursue the quote accordingly but thought I'd reach out here to confirm others' experiences.

FYI, I explored this credit for one of my CI v4 projects, got all the calculations, but then the project ended up not needing the point, so we didn't actually pursue. We emailed LEED Coach with our calcs and asked them to verify that we were calculating it correctly, since the guidance isn't all that clear. I can't find the response they gave us back (will reply back if I can find it), but I do have some guidance that Tristan helped us gather from USGBC that spells out the steps. I've copied the instructions below for reference:

"Each WRC represents 1,000 gallons of water.  The full number of certificates needed depends on whether the WRCs are purchased from within the project’s watershed. 

The project calculates its annual water usage and divides it by 1,000 gallons of water; this determines the number of WRCs the project should purchase annually if the WRCs are purchased from within the project’s watershed.  If the WRCs are purchased from outside of the project’s watershed, the project calculates its annual water usage, multiplies this number by 2, and then divides by 1,000 gallons of water to determine the number of WRCs the project purchases annually.

Multiply the calculated number of WRCs the project purchases annually by 5 to determine the total number of WRCs required to be purchased.

Yes, projects should round up to the next whole number when calculating the minimum number of WRCs to purchase."

Just as a point of reference, our cost for a ~49,000 SF interior fit out for a regular office was right at $2k. I can see how this cost can easily be much higher (and therefore a harder sell for projects) for other facility types. Our cost also had to be purchased from outside the watershed (therefore twice as much), which may not be a factor for some projects.

Hi, I posted on a separate string that doesn't seem to be showing up, please forgive the repeat.  I'm trying to be sure whether the annual water use is for the baseline or design case.  It looks like the credit language says baseline, but I'd appreciate it if anyone who knows for sure can confirm which is correct. thanks!

I'm pretty sure it should be based on the design case, much like the green power credit is. Otherwise, you'd be (in theory) required to purchase for much less efficient equipment calcs. 

Thanks!  It makes sense to me that it should be based on the design case since that will be closer to actual use.  But the language in the pilot credit library says baseline, this is why I'm confused.  And of course, greater environmental benefit would occur from using baseline as more restoration certificates would be required.

Hi all -

Just want to share some feedback I got from LEED Coach:

"For this credit, projects must calculate the annual water budget. This includes indoor and outdoor water use (based on WE credit calculations) as well as process uses (chiller, cooling towers, commercial kitchens, healthcare water systems) within the scope of the LEED project.  If the project scope includes process water uses, then the project team must develop reasonable estimates of annual water consumption based on the manufacturer's data regarding equipment water use and the project's anticipated usage.  Process water uses include those listed in Tables 2-3 in the prerequisite language (https://www.usgbc.org/node/1734960?return=/credits/new-construction/v4) and Tables 2-4 in the credit language (https://www.usgbc.org/node/2611414?return=/credits).  Table 4 of the credit lists healthcare water systems that must be included.  Other healthcare water uses not listed in Table 4, such as exam room sinks, are not required to be included in the annual water budget.

Regarding outdoor water use, it is correct that the water budget for this pilot credit must include annual use. To determine the annual outdoor water use, the project team may either multiply the result of the WEp/c Outdoor Water Use calculation for the peak month by 12, or calculate each month individually and sum the results."

Hi I am Dian. We are in South East Asia, Indonesia, can we achieve this pilot credit through BEF?

We are in the UK and achieved the credit using BEF.  Hope this help.

We achieved the credit using BEF for projects in Singapore.

Thank you for all the information! 

Good morning.

The Project Team is looking to apply for the Water Restoration Certificates Pilot Credit and want to confirm the amount of purchase we will need and the source of the information we are using.

Our project is located in Dallas Texas is this location qualify to: “WRCs purchased from within project’s watershed* – purchase WRCs for 100% of project’s annual water budget for a 5 year contract.”

The project Annual Design Water Consumption from the Indoor Water Use Reduction Calculator is equal to 534,216.25 Gallons/year time 5 = 2,671,081.2

WRC needed:  2,672 WRCs

Please confirm if our approach is correct and the source (the annual design Water consumption from the calculator) is the number we will need to use. We will purchase WRCs from Bonneville Environmental Foundation (bef) provider. Would be this considered Within project’s watershed?

Thank you so very much,

Graciela Kessler

Graciela - You also need to include any process/makeup water and outdoor water (irrigation) use. Purchasing from Bonneville does not immediately qualify for within your watershed but the nice folks there should be able to tell you if there are any WRCs available for the watershed of your project location.

Thank you Michelle 

Hello! My team and I calculated the "project´s annual design water consumption" based on the LEED indoor water use calculator, however our project is a small retail boutique so its water consumption is not a great volume. After determining our 100% annual water budget we doubled that amount and then multiply the result by 5 to get the total amount for a five-year contract. Be sure to round it up to the next thousand, for example 8,801.5 gallons to 9,000 gallons which equals to 9 WRC.

I think the pilot credits are a great opportunity to find new credits to apply to, to go above and beyond. This one I think it´s a great impulse to take care of water issues and to create awareness on the importance of restoring. However I think that the LEED form in LEEDonline should have a link to the registration page to prevent teams to forget those steps.