WATER
108
Fig 7.1 Global sustainable
existing building sustainability
assessment tools
Source: Created by Patricia
Andrasik and Milan Glisic
’
, 2017
7.2 Comparison
The introductory overview for the WE section of LEED O+M
addresses the complexity and importance of water use manage-
ment in existing buildings. As with the majority of other rating
systems, the goal is to encourage reduction of total water use.
3
It is important to notice that all rating systems address water use
in certain phases of a building’s life (Figure 7.1). The two major
challenges addressed by all rating systems for existing buildings
are a reduction of water use, and a reduction of energy needed
for wastewater treatment and reuse or preservation.
The scarcity of available potable water and the hydrological
cycle in various climates creates a nuance in the way different
rating systems prioritize credit allocation in this category (Figure
7.2). Typically, most building water cycles through the structure
and then ows off-site as wastewater. In industrially developed
countries, potable water usually comes from a public water
supply system a great distance away from the building site, and
wastewater exiting the site must be piped to a processing plant,
and then emptied into a distant water body. This pass-through
system reduces streamow in rivers and depletes freshwater
aquifers, causing water tables to drop and wells to go dry. In
..................Content has been hidden....................
You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.