The LEED Green Building Rating System is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. The rating system is divided into six main areas of design. These areas are Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Materials & Resources, Environmental Quality, and Innovation & Design Process. Each of the areas has specific requirements and prerequisites that must be met in order to qualify for any certification levels. The certification levels and minimum points for each level in the LEED program are as follows:
Certified 26-32 points
Silver Level 33-38 points
Gold Level 39-51 points
Platinum Level 52+ points with a possible 69 points available.
One of the listed areas in the LEED programme is Water Efficiency. The category is sub divided into three sub categories that allow points to be earned by achieving certain criteria established to reduce water consumption.
- Utilise water efficient Landscaping
- Reduction in the use of municipal potable water
- Reduction in wastewater through Innovative Wastewater Technologies
Utilizing water-efficient landscaping will reduce the amount of potable water used for irrigation/gardening by 50 percent. This is typically accomplished by using a highly efficient irrigation system, capturing rainwater, or using recycled site water to reduce the consumption of potable water.
Reduction of the use of municipal potable water, a minimum of 50 percent or treating 100 percent of the wastewater on-site to tertiary standards is required.