Forum discussion

CI-v4 WEp1:Indoor water use reduction

Occupant usage of tenant fixtures is less than 100%

We are working on a tenant fit-out for a specialty group occupying the entire 3rd floor and part of the 1st floor in a LEED-certified building. The office is designed for 110 employees, with most staff on the 3rd floor utilizing the toilets in the base building's core. Our design includes a private restroom for the CEO adjacent to their office, as well as two single restrooms on the 1st floor intended for a few specialty offices. These two restrooms are expected to serve fewer than 10 occupants, though we have conservatively assumed 35% usage.

The preliminary review raised a comment that the percentage of occupant usage for each fixture family in the prerequisite calculation must total 100%, but this calculation is limited to tenant fixtures. In our case, this approach doesn't seem to align with actual usage, as the biggest portion of our occupants will use the base building's fixtures, so assuming that 100% of our occupants will use our installed fixtures would not make sense. It would be more logical for the occupant usage to total 100% in the credit calculator, which accounts for both tenant and base building fixtures, rather than the prerequisite, which only includes tenant fixtures.

Does this justification make sense in our situation? We are considering submitting a narrative to explain why achieving 100% occupant usage for our tenant fixtures alone would not be accurate.

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Fri, 02/14/2025 - 03:18

Apologies - I had this all typed out and entered 2 weeks ago, but it apparently disappeared when my computer crashed while posting. I believe you likely would have been fine if your explanation had been provided alongside the initial submission for the Prerequisite. I agree with your approach and that the Credit documentation would supplement and add up to 100% with the addition of the core fixtures. In future projects (or for other Prereqs or Credits), it's always a good idea to explain things if it strays from a typical approach. One note: I've gotten review comments in the past that restrooms serving only a CEO or similar office are still considered public, not private (even if only 1-2 people are intended to use it), so make sure they're labeled correctly with the dropdown in the calculator. 

Tue, 09/16/2025 - 22:02

Hello everyone,I have a similar problem with my LEED ID+C project.  My project is a lab/office space that is occupying half of a floor in a building.  It seems no new plumbing fixtures will be installed for the existing public restrooms that are situated inside the project space, the only thing that is new is the pantry sink for the pantry that is located inside the project space.  However, our scope also includes a new lactation room with a sink, and gender neutral restroom with a new sink and toilet, to be designed outside of the project space!  Meaning both rooms will be utilized by everyone on that floor, even if they do not occupy the project space.Is it still possible to pursue this credit considering the project space only has one new sink for the pantry and the remainder of the new plumbing fixtures will be in rooms outside of the project space, while also dealing with existing plumbing fixtures from the existing public restrooms in the project space?Would we have to estimate the FTE occupants from inside the project space AND outside the project space?  Would we still need to include the existing plumbing fixtures in the existing public restrooms inside the project space, even though if it is not part of the scope then we wouldn't need to include them (as per the indoor water use reduction prerequisite)?  Is this approach even possible since we're only considering the outside lactation room and gender neutral restroom, and pantry sink located in the project space for new plumbing fixtures?Any advice would be greatly appreciated since we are currently below LEED Silver, and the client's sustainability guidelines require no less than LEED Silver.

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