We happen to have received comments back from two different LEED-CI projects within a week of each other and they appear to include contrary interpretations on the issue of whether or not to include base building fixtures in the prerequisite calculation. Both were submitted AFTER the July 19, 2010 Addenda. (Btw, going to the USGBC LEED Addenda page DOES NOT give access to this document! Very frustrating!) For the prerequisite, in the first case the commenter wrote: "...note that fixtures which are not installed or modified as part of the LEED-CI project scope of work may not be included in the calculations for WEp1." As is typical, this project was a several-level tenant fit-out with a pre-existing "core" on each floor which includes circulation, elevators, and restrooms. They were brand-new, and not modified as part of the scope of work for the tenant fit-out. In the second case, similar in all respects except that it is a single floor, the commenter wrote (again for the prerequisite,) "The calculations include all fixtures installed by the LEED-CI project scope of work as well as all fixtures within the LEED-CI Project Boundary (such as all base building fixtures accessible only via the LEED-CI tenant space)..." This has been a source of deep frustration for us. Looking at the plans, the "core" is grayed out: not part of the project scope of work. Yet, those core restrooms are entirely surrounded by the tenant space, and are used exclusively by the tenants of our project. For the WE Prerequisite, which is it? In or out?
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Michelle Rosenberger
PartnerArchEcology
522 thumbs up
May 23, 2012 - 11:39 am
Hi Patti,
You definitely need the Additional Water Guidance document which has been recently updated and apparently has disappeared from Credit Resources and cannot be found. I have sent an email requesting a copy of this.
Sounds like the first review comment is questionable but the second one is accurate per the guidance we've seen and the approach we've taken.
The previous guidance indicates that the issue in this case is not whether the restrooms were upgraded or installed as part of your scope of work, as it is whether your FTEs will use fixtures in the building outside your LEED boundary/scope of work or not.
We have a fourth floor TI in which the tenants will use some restrooms in our scope and core restrooms outside our scope of work. Therefore, both sets of fixtures were included in the Prereq and WEcr1 (even though we didn't touch the core).
In your case, if your tenants are using your new fixtures and they are using core fixtures, but you don't want to claim water savings on the core fixtures, then you only include the fixtures in your scope of work for Prereq1 but can't claim WEcr1.
The only time the water fixtures are not included in Prereq1 is if your tenants use fixtures entirely outside of your scope of work/LEED boundary. If that's the case, you are exempt from the Prereq by special circumstances.
Victoria Lockhart
Arup Associates125 thumbs up
June 26, 2012 - 11:12 am
I have also just recieved the first response - that base building fixtures need to be excluded in WEp1- which leaves us in a tricky situation, given that within our project scope there is only one flow fixture with a saving of less than the required 20%. Patti - have you had success in simply reasoning that the credit approach is right in line with the scope of fixtures that will be used by tenants, whether base building or tenant fit out?
Luis Miguel Diazgranados
Green Factory125 thumbs up
August 8, 2012 - 3:46 pm
http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=6493
Link for the Updated (July 6, 2012) Water Use Reduction Additional Guidance. According to Appendix A from this document, your project (and the one i'm working for) looks like a Case 3 scenario, and therefore we should include both interior (inside the CI scope) and exterior (core) fixtures in WEp1 and WEc1 forms.