The project is a office building in Long island. We are planning to apply for credit WE 1.1. The project site is 2,295,612 SF. The planted areas on the site is 1,511,942 SF. A portion of this planted area will be left natural and the rest will include landscape design . We are planning to install irrigation in a 112,221 SF area planted with grass and shrubs. It is not clear to the design team which areas may be included in the calculation. Can we use all of 1,511,942 SF of planted area including the natural untouched areas to earn a point for this credit?
A project may not include planted areas in the irrigation calculations if these areas are intended to be left in a natural state, and not therefore require irrigation. Only landscaped areas can be included in the calculations for this project. Please refer to LEED-NC v2.1 CIR ruling dated 3/23/2004 for additional guidance. Applicable Internationally.