The Eurobusiness office in Curitiba, Brazil, is the world’s first LEED Zero Water building. The 14-story LEED Platinum building marries water efficiency and resilience by treating 100 percent of its wastewater onsite.USGBCWhere facilities are able to improve stormwater management, financial incentives may also be available to help improve the business case. Improving water management helps reduce strain on central stormwater and wastewater systems and enhances water quality in local waters. In light of these community benefits, many water utilities and municipalities offer incentives for certain green infrastructure practices on private land. Building owners and facility managers should contact their local government bodies and water utilities to understand potential incentives.
Several resources have been developed to help governments and utilities develop incentives to support resilience goals. The Water Research Foundation helps practitioners understand the advantages and disadvantages of incentive programs in its report “Incentives for Green Infrastructure Implementation on Private Property: Lessons Learned” and provides an in-depth look at six types of green infrastructure incentive programs. The WaterNow Alliance’s Tap into Resilience project also offers case studies and information on incentives.
A number of resources exist to help facility teams learn about different strategies to reduce their water consumption and improve site water management. USGBC offers a water efficiency badge indicating successful completion of courses and quizzes on the topic, and the U.S. Chamber Foundation has collected success stories on water efficiency and management from a range of business sectors. Owners and managers can also take advantage of targeted LEED credits and tools to assess and improve resilience of their buildings.
USGBC also has a free LEED Climate Resilience Screening Tool, which evaluates the resilience potential of each LEED credit, demonstrating potential vulnerabilities and adaptation opportunities based on the project’s climate zone. Furthermore, LEED offers three resilience pilot credits that help projects be aware of and address risk and vulnerabilities in a design, including weaknesses to natural and human-caused disasters.
How Water Efficiency Creates Resilient Facilities
How LEED Guides Users to Water Efficiency
Incentives, Resources for Implementing Water Efficiency and Resilience
