We are currently working on a warehouse project that is an extention of an existing warehouse. While conducting the site assessment, we realized that most of the features do not influence the project's design. Features such as orientation and topography were already established when the design team started the project.
Can this features not be addressed in the site assessment?
Emily Purcell
Sustainable Design LeadCannonDesign
LEEDuser Expert
323 thumbs up
April 21, 2023 - 10:13 am
Hi Sofia,
You do need to complete every section of the site assessment worksheet, but you can simply enter that the category did not affect design and why. For example, that the site was previously graded and has no significant topography, or that the orientation was determined by the existing building. It's pretty rare for a project to have something substantial to say about EVERY factor so just make sure you're covering the ones that were important to the design and explaining why not for the rest.
Sofia Barahona
B-green Chile7 thumbs up
May 3, 2023 - 7:54 pm
Emily, thank you for your response, it was very helpful.
I also wrote to the GBCI and got a similar answer:
Depending on the project site and base building design, some level of assessment for each of the topics may be required for the addition's design. As noted in the requirements of this credit, "The survey or assessment should demonstrate the relationships between the site features and topics listed above and how these features influenced the project design; give the reasons for not addressing any of those topics." So not all projects are required to address all features. That said, the intent of this credit is "To assess site conditions before design to evaluate sustainable options and inform related decisions about site design." The reason for not evaluating one of the topics listed in the credit criteria must align with the intent.
It should also be noted that Step 1 of the Step-by-Step Guidance of this credit indicates that "A previous site assessment can be used (including an assessment completed for a campus in which the project is located), provided it accurately reflects the current site and surrounding property conditions."