Lue01 Planted area

(4 credits available)

Aim

To measure and encourage planted areas within the asset footprint that support site’s ecology and the health and wellbeing of occupants through access to green space.

Question

What percentage of the asset’s footprint has been planted?

Credits	Answer	Select a single answer option
0	A	Question not answered
0	B	<5%
1	C	≥5% to ≤20%
2	D	≥20% to ≤40%
3	E	>40% to ≤70%
4	F	>70% or more

Assessment criteria

Criterion	Assessment criteria	Applicable answer
1	Planted area can contain or be a mix of horizontal and vertical planting.	B-F
2	Vertical habitats or green walls can be:  Free standing or part of the building, as long as these are located within the asset’s footprint. Partially or completely covered with vegetation and, in some cases, soil or an inorganic growing medium. Green walls can only be considered if they meet the definition (see below) and are ‘plug planted’. Green walls consisting of climbing plants where the wall is simply acting as a support for the plants cannot be considered	B-F

Methodology

Calculating the percentage of planted area (%) on the site

For buildings only:

The asset is a building on its own without any associated site attached (for example, an office tower in the city centre). In this case, the asset footprint can be considered to be the area of the asset/ building only (typically the ground floor area).

For buildings located on a site:

The asset footprint can be taken as the site on which the building is situated. The boundary of the site must be drawn when either: 

• Responsibility of management or ownership of the site changes; OR
• If a site includes multiple assets and there is a clear demarcation of the area associated with each asset, then this must be considered to be the site boundary for the asset footprint.

Note: This value can equate to more than 100% if the sum of the area of the vertical faces are more than the total asset footprint.

Evidence

Criteria	Evidence requirement
-	The evidence below is not exhaustive, please also refer to the ‘BREEAM evidential requirements’ section in the scope of the Guidance for appropriate evidence types which can be used to demonstrate compliance.
1,2	Visual inspection of ecological features
1,2	Photographic evidence of installed ecological features.
1,2	Written evidence that the calculation has been carried out

Definitions

Green Roof:

A green roof is a roof that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and soil or another growing medium, situated on top of a waterproof membrane. These systems can be either intensive or extensive. 

• Intensive Green roof systems have a deep growing medium, which allow the establishment of trees and shrubs. The depth of the growing medium requires extra loading requirements within the holding structure and requires a complex irrigation system for maintenance.
• Extensive green roof systems have a thin growing medium and require minimal maintenance, and in general do not require irrigation.

Green Walls:

An external wall which is fully or partially covered with vegetation. These systems usually consist of a growing medium (soil, water or an inorganic substrate), with an integrated water delivery system where necessary given the climate and local weather. The structure should be plug planted and attached to the external wall/walls of an asset. They are also known as living walls, green facades or vertical gardens.

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