Handprinting is a compliance pathway acknowledging the net positive impacts a project can create beyond the boundaries of the project site (see figure 5-4). For this Imperative, an affordable housing project may choose to meet some or all of its required potable water reduction goals off site, through a handprint within the watershed of the project.
Handprinting Options
There are two ways to create a handprint:
- Preventing or avoiding footprints that would otherwise have occurred. This also includes reducing the size of footprints that would otherwise occur.
- Creating positive benefits that would not otherwise have occurred.
Possible handprinting approaches include:
- Upgrading water fixtures in another property within the developer’s portfolio to reduce potable water use in that building.
- Installing composting toilets in another property to reduce potable water use in that building.
- Installing low-flow fixtures in buildings in the community to reduce water use.
- Sending a project’s excess non-potable water to nearby property to offset potable water use on that property (such as for irrigation).
Implementing Handprinting – An Example
A new affordable housing project is required to reduce potable water use by 50% compared to the baseline. Installing low-flow water fixtures results in a 35% reduction in potable water use. Instead of designing, attempting to permit, and installing an on-site rainwater-to-potable system or rainwater-to-non-potable system to meet the remaining 15% water use reduction, the project team may elect to handprint using this alternative compliance pathway for affordable housing.
After calculating the total gallons of water per year needed to meet the remaining 15% potable water use reduction, the project team can invest in water efficiency improvements in another building within the owner’s portfolio or in the neighborhood, in order to have a net zero draw on the municipal potable water and a net positive impact within the watershed. These off-site improvements may improve functionality for the residents in the other building and save the owner (or residents) money on water bills that they can reinvest in other amenities and services for those residents.
Projects that also contain market-rate housing may only handprint for the affordable-housing units in the project.
Measuring Handprints
All handprints occur relative to some baseline, often referenced as business as usual (BAU). Impacts are typically measured in footprint-related units, such as gallons per minute or gallons per day for water.
The amount of potable water that the LBC project uses must be metered to determine the required offset. The potable water reduction from handprinting measures must be metered or determined using utility data if possible. If metering or utility data is not possible/available, then calculated water savings is acceptable for documentation of this requirement.
Where the handprinting offset can be demonstrated by metering, the reduction in potable water use must be compared to the water use during either the immediately preceding year or an average of the immediately preceding 5 years. If the handprinting strategy is being implemented in a new building, the project team must show a water reduction beyond BAU or code.
Where the handprinting offset is calculated, conservative and industry accepted assumptions regarding usage patterns must be used.
Handprinting impacts must be in place during the entire 12-month performance period, and the associated water savings must be calculated to last for at least 15 years.
