Inclusive Design Pilot Credit

I am currently working on documentation for this credit. We're applying it retroactively rather than from the beignning of the project, since we were looking for a fifth innovation point and realized it fit well. We are targeting 2, 3, 4, and 5. 1 was partially achieved but some of the specific numbers were over what the project achieved, and some members of the design team thought they were surprisingly high (turning radius of 72" for example). I understand why 1 would be all-or-nothing while 2,3,4 and 5 are less quantitative and rigid, but meeting some of those numbers on the entire project would have been unlikely even if we'd started with this credit from the beginning.

Overall, documenting the design process and O&M/training has been a productive exercise. The project is a public-private partnership on a state university campus with both an academic and residential space, so you can imagine how many moving parts are involved. I held a conference call with the responsible parties for the developer and university and we worked to compile an array of policies and resources to make up the O&M component, which was useful for making sure all parties were aware of the resources the others had in place to make the space better for everyone. The team is rightfully proud of how it involved stakeholders from the beginning and incorporated inclusive measures, and I think they were pleased to get it all into one package. 

The credit language was mostly applicable to the project; it's a university campus so a lot of the policies and available resources are campus wide rather than project specific and existed prior to the project development. So for example we are including all-gender restrooms, but that came out of a previously established campus policy rather than stakeholders asking for it specifically on this building. Hopefully this is acceptable to the reviewer as I don't think it would make sense to duplicate efforts in making a project-specific manual, or to track down the origins of campus policies.

Our project gave the "learning opportunity" of searching LEED pilot credits to find appropriate ones for the project.  They chose this credit because they felt it brought together staff members and specialty consultants to discuss options. It "included" the staff and specialty consultants as part of the team, not just specialists in their area.  Students completed the training manual, did presentations to design team and university staff, and prepared LEED documentation.  This effort will be included as part of the Sustainability Education credit submission.

We were successful in adding it to Sustainability Education, which was already anticipated as a Master Site credit under our LEED-Campus.  We are resubmitting Inclusive Design with our construction credits because reviewer comments about Wayfinding and our strategy there.  This credit isn't as simple as we first thought although it has been invaluable in design discussions with the owner.

I do not see a way to provide a comment on WEpc147 - All-Gender Restrooms, so I am posting it here. 

We are working with a University on a new facility that houses a Central Energy Plant and office and shop/storage for the Athletic Operations.  Without knowing earlier about this credit, we ended up designing the project to meet every aspect of this credit. 

The design included just 2 single-user restrooms both with water closet, lav and shower. The University wanted both restrooms to meet accessibility and all-gender requirements. The goal for indoor water use reduction was 40% without non-potable source contribution.  This created a challenge, since without urinals the project had no way to get to the 40% reduction.  Since both criteria were equally important to the University--all gender restrooms and 40% water use reduction--the design team and University made a decision to prioritize both criteria.  The final design includes the same identical (mirrored) fixtures and amenities:  1.28/1.1 gpf dual-flush water closet; 0.125 gpf urinal, 1.5 gpm showerhead and 0.35 gpm lav faucet.  Breakroom sink was also reduced to 0.5 gpm.  Both restooms are outfitted with the same amenities for personal care, accessibility and for feminine hygiene dispensers and disposal units. Making these rooms accessible, identical and truly all-gender, while reducing indoor water use consumption, resulted in a triple success for the University.  And coincidentally, we also meet Option 1 of WEpc147 All-Gender Restrooms pilot credit as a bonus!

Our project expressed interest in inclusive design at the beginning of the project during the ecocharrette. We are pursuing INpc125 Inclusive Design and WEpc147 All-Gender Restrooms. These credits work hand in hand often times, or at least builds on requirement 5 of Inclusive Design. Our project is a Museum & Civic Center, the owners of our project wanted to make this location a centric location for their city to celebrate identity and culture of the area. We focus on physical access of the space, emotional health, inclusive spaces, and wayfinding stratgies to achieve this credit. We are also recommending WEpc147 to a University Project- we are deciding whether or not to install urinals. There has been debate on whether or not a bathroom is truly gender neutral with the introduction of urinals. However, they provide the most water savings with the pint flush option.

I do not see a way to provide a comment on WEpc147 - All-Gender Restrooms, so I am posting it here.

We are pursuing this pilot credit for a college project and without knowing earlier about this credit, the design closely aligned to meet every aspect of this credit. The project team always aimed at building - only all gender facilities and with the selection of efficient fixtures and fittings this pilot credit was achievable.

I do not see a way to provide a comment on WEpc147 - All-Gender Restrooms, so I am posting it here.

We're pursuing this credit for a corporate campus, and it aligns perfectly with the owner's design guidelines already. The project has provided two single‐stall, all‐gender restrooms adjacent with each bank of multi‐stall, gendered restrooms. This is a trend we're seeing in the tech sector and beyond, so it's well aligned with this pilot credit and it's nice for the owner to be able to take credit for a progressive design requirement that is already in the project.