Hi!
We are working on a project which comprises 11 buildings (2 of these are parking garages, and 3 are support buildings). We are evaluating whether Master Site (campus) or Group certification is the most appropriate approach.
One of the strongest objectives in the project is 100% of wastewater treatment on site- process that develops in only one water treatment system located within the LEED boundary. The reason we have only one water treatment system is to make the treatment process more efficient as well as achieving energy savings by using less pumps for recirculation for its reuse on-site (all toilets and urinals).
The AGMBC states that WEc2: Innovative Wastewater Technologies "cannot be pursued as a campus credit. Each LEED project referencing the Master Site may pursue the credit individually". Does this mean we cannot achieve this credit if we decide to go with the Master Site approach? It would be absurd to separate our system into 11 smaller wastewater treatment plants, but it also would not be fair not achieving this credit since 100% of the wastewater is treated and reused on-site (while the credit requires 50%). Not only, we are being able to treat some of the water to make it potable for drinking fountains.
Thank you!
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Melissa Merryweather
DirectorGreen Consult-Asia
245 thumbs up
March 12, 2013 - 9:24 pm
We were going to use the multi-building campus approach for a recent certified project but could not since the one-certification approach is still not available. We are doing the second building out of 10. For the first, this method is exactly what the reviewers asked us to do for landscape water use and innovative water use: the wastewater treatment plant takes inputs from 10 buildings and uses output for 8 of the building's toilets and all campus landscaping. So we were asked to apportion the input and output to each building to justify each building's landscape area and toilets within the context of the whole. Very messy but they were satisfied with the result. Does that make sense? We will be submitting for final submittal for the second building soon. If there is any difference in their assessment the second time around I will post it.
Erin Holdenried
Sustainability Architect125 thumbs up
March 13, 2013 - 2:51 pm
Rosemaria, you can definitley achieve this credit. The fact that it is not available as a Master Credit just means you have to document the credit separately for each building. Use Melissa's approach to apportion a percentage of the total wastewater treated for each building to achieve the credit.
Note, that WEc2 is available as a Group credit. If you want to go the Group route, contact USGBC. Some projects are getting permission to pursue Group Certification.