LEEDuser’s viewpoint
Frank advice from LEED experts
LEED is changing all the time, and every project is unique. Even seasoned professionals can miss a critical detail and lose a credit or even a prerequisite at the last minute. Our expert advice guides our LEEDuser Premium members and saves you valuable time.
Credit language
Requirements
Provide outdoor space greater than or equal to 30% of the total site area (including building footprint).
At least 25% of the required outdoor open space must be vegetated space planted with two or more types of vegetation or have overhead vegetated canopy.
The outdoor space must be physically accessible and be one or more of the following:
- social area: a pedestrian-oriented paving or landscape area that accommodate outdoor social activities
- recreational area: a recreation-oriented paving or landscape area that encourage physical activity;
- diverse green space: a landscape area with two or more types of vegetation that provide opportunities for year-round visual interest;
- garden: a garden space dedicated to community gardens or urban food production; or
- habitat area: preserved or created habitat that meets the criteria of SS Credit Protect or Restore Habitat and includes elements of human interaction. These areas automatically meet the vegetation criteria of this credit.
Extensive or intensive vegetated roofs that are physically accessible can be used toward the minimum vegetation requirement, and qualifying roof-based physically accessible paving areas can be used toward credit compliance.
Wetlands or naturally designed ponds may count as open space if the side slope gradients average 1:4 (vertical:horizontal) or less and are vegetated.
See all forum discussions about this credit »
What does it cost?
Cost estimates for this credit
On each BD+C v4 credit, LEEDuser offers the wisdom of a team of architects, engineers, cost estimators, and LEED experts with hundreds of LEED projects between then. They analyzed the sustainable design strategies associated with each LEED credit, but also to assign actual costs to those strategies.
Our tab contains overall cost guidance, notes on what “soft costs” to expect, and a strategy-by-strategy breakdown of what to consider and what it might cost, in percentage premiums, actual costs, or both.
This information is also available in a full PDF download in The Cost of LEED v4 report.
Learn more about The Cost of LEED v4 »
Addenda
4/21/2023 – Updated: 5/9/2023
Reference Guide Correction
Description of change: Revise the second sentence under Requirements to read as: "At least 25% of the required outdoor open space..."
Revise the third sentence under Beta Update to read as: "Of the total outdoor open space required, a minimum..."
Internationally Applicable: No
4/21/2023 – Updated: 5/9/2023
Rating System Correction
Description of change: Revise the second sentence under Requirements to read as: "At least 25% of the required outdoor open space..."
Revise the third sentence under Beta Update to read as: "Of the total outdoor open space required, a minimum..."
Internationally Applicable: No
2/19/2021 – Updated: 3/1/2021
Form Update
Description of change: The sidebar note changed to "Note: At least 25% of the calculated outdoor open space must be vegetated”.
Internationally Applicable: No
2/1/2021 – Updated: 2/5/2021
Rating System Correction
Description of change: Under Requirements, in the second sentence, delete "7.5% of the total site area (i.e. 25% of the outdoor space)" and replace with "At least 25% of the calculated outdoor open space....”
Internationally Applicable: No
2/1/2021 – Updated: 2/5/2021
Reference Guide Correction
Description of change: Under the Behind the Intent, replace the second sentence to read as follows: "Projects must provide outdoor space greater than or equal to 30% of the total site area. Of the total outdoor open space calculated, a minimum of 25% must be vegetated or have overhead vegetated canopy."
Internationally Applicable: No
11/9/2020 – Updated: 2/3/2021
Form Update
Description of change: 1. The sidebar note "Note: At least 25% of open space must be vegetated" was changed to "Note: At least 7.5% of the total site area (i.e. 25% of open space) must be vegetated”
2. The narrative instructions that ask the user to describe the open space were revised to include a label for each type of open space that corresponds with the revised v4.1 language
3. The "For projects including roof surfaces" section was removed.
4. The "For projects that are part of a
multitenant complex" section was removed.
Internationally Applicable: No
11/9/2020 – Updated: 11/30/2020
Rating System Correction
Description of change: 1. In the second sentence, "25% of the minimum 30% total outdoor space requirement" should be removed and replaced with "7.5% of the total site area (i.e. 25% of the outdoor space)" and "vegetated space" should be added after "must be"
2. The types of outdoor spaces included in the bulleted list should be labeled for clarification as follows, respectively: social area, recreational area, diverse green space, garden, and habitat area.
3. The third bullet should be revised to read "a landscape area with two or more types of vegetation"
4. The fourth bullet should contain "; or" at the end
5. The final bullet should include this sentence at the end, "These areas automatically meet the vegetation criteria of this credit." for clarification.
6. In the second to last paragraph, "25%" should be removed for clarification.
Internationally Applicable: No
11/9/2020 – Updated: 11/30/2020
Reference Guide Correction
Description of change: Under the Behind the Intent section, revise the second sentence to read as follows: "Projects must provide outdoor space greater than or equal to 30% of the total site area, and 7.5% of the total site area (i.e. 25% of the minimum 30% total outdoor space requirement) must be vegetated."
Internationally Applicable: No
See all forum discussions about this credit »
Documentation toolkit
The motherlode of cheat sheets
LEEDuser’s Documentation Toolkit is loaded with calculators to help assess credit compliance, tracking spreadsheets for materials, sample templates to help guide your narratives and LEED Online submissions, and examples of actual submissions from certified LEED projects for you to check your work against. To get your plaque, start with the right toolkit.
