We have a series of large planters featuring native plants and monarch butterfly attracting plants. Some of our planters are also used for growing food on-site. I think we have well over 10,000 square feet of combined planter based plantings with everything from medium sized trees to smaller native plants all over the site. Can I count these? We are an urban core building without a lot of extra space to create any additional plantings (we've planted every square inch we have available). Our planters range from a diameter of 4-5' to ones that size of a studio apartment!
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Kimberly Schlaepfer
Sustainability Coordinator LEED AP O+M, BD+C74 thumbs up
March 2, 2017 - 6:07 pm
Hi Simona,
The reference guide does not mention planters as being compliant or not compliant to earn this credit. The intent of this credit seems more geared towards buildings with large sites that can help connect the building site to the surrounding habitat. Urban core buildings, being as they are, are not surrounded by habitat, therefore I am not confident that LEED will allow this approach to the credit.
However, with the large square footage of native, and monarch butterfly attracting plants, there may be room to argue that your building meets the intent of the credit to the best of your ability, given the site constraints. Because LEED does not that specify planters are not allowed, it could be worth a shot to pursue this and see if LEED would accept this approach.
I hope this helps!