Credits WE 3.1 & WE 3.2, Indoor Water Use

One challenge I've heard voiced about LEED is that regional needs are not weighted fairly enough. For example, water consumption reduction is vastly more crucial in the dry Southwestern part of the US than in the lush Pacific Northwest, but currently LEED gives the same points for all areas across the US and has no prerequisites to follow on water consumption for dryer areas. LEED does require that at least 3 points are achieved through the Water Efficiency (WE) category.

Here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes we don't have large issues with water consumption, but that doesn't mean that we won't some day or that it's not important.

This specific category has a maximum of 6 points. We are trying for 4 of the 6.



As you can see, we're choosing two from the WE 3.1 credit, and one from the WE 3.2 credit. This is the wording used in our construction specifications concerning water fixtures:

All indoor water-using structures must meet the following requirements:

• Lavatory faucets average flow rate must be less than or equal to 2.0 GPM
• Showerhead average flow rates must be less than or equal to 2.0 GPM
• Toilets, including dual flush toilets, must have an average flow rate that is less than or equal to 1.1 GPF

Note: We have not signed up for WE 1.1, which is a rainwater harvesting system, but we may include a rain barrel or look into this further later.