SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS

Asset Classes

Focus Area

Water

Topic

Baseline Practices

Question #

W7.0 — Owner or landlord shares Water Management practices

Question

Has the owner or landlord shared a Water Communication Plan with the building tenants?

Applicability

All asset classes
Tenant occupied building

Answer & Scoring

  • Yes – this is a baseline requirement
  • Not applicable – Owner/landlord occupied building

Requirements

    1. Develop a building-specific Water Communication Plan that covers:

      • Efforts the building management team may implement to assess water efficiency and hazards. This should include tips for operations and maintenance optimization, fixture efficiency, managing water hazards and the value of sub-metering
      • Initiatives that the owner/landlord can provide to support the tenant’s efforts
      • Completed water assessment and associated initiatives from W1.0b as applicable

    2. Copies of communication with the building’s tenants where the content of the building’s Water Communication Plan was shared, dated within the past 12 months
    3. Demonstrate that communication was distributed to at least half of the number of tenant organizations occupying the building or to a group that leases at least half of the total building area

Documentation

  • Building-specific Water Communication Plan
  • Proof of communication with a representative group of building tenants, covering water assessment, tips for operations and maintenance optimization, fixture efficiency, managing water hazards and the value of sub-metering
  • W7.0 – Water Communication Plan Template

Suggested Lead

In-house: Facility Maintenance, Building Manager/Policy Makers 

Value

  • Increasing occupant awareness and engagement can positively impact the sustainability practices at building
  • Tenant participation is necessary for reaching water reduction goals
  • Develop a Water Management Communication Plan that defines how the building’s water reduction goals will be shared with tenants
  • Share water reduction tips with tenants to encourage tenants to play an active role in water reduction at the building

Description

Increasing building tenant and occupant awareness and engagement in environmental and sustainable practices can have a significant positive or negative impact on the performance of the building.

References

None

Adapted BB 3.0 Question

Best Practice 5 – Has a Water Assessment been conducted in the last five (5) years?

Best Practice 16 – Is an Occupant Environmental Communication Program in place at the building?