Petal: Water
Imperative 05: Net Positive Water

Rainwater Treatment System

To satisfy the Living Building Challenge, The Kendeda Building collects rainwater for one hundred percent of its drinking, washing, showering, lab uses, and the composting toilet that only use a teaspoon of water per "foam flush." 

An 18,000 square foot catchment area comprised of the building's roof and solar canopy collects rainfall, which is channeled to first-flush filters and then to a 50,000 gallon cistern located in the building's basement. Due to the humid and rainy conditions in the Southeast, the building's roof and solar canopy are expected to harvest 460,000 gallons of water a year. The catchment area harvests approximately 41% of the annual rainfall on the site.

The design team reviewed three decades of weather data to size the cistern to store enough rainwater to overcome historical droughts and thereby create water resiliency. A rainwater-to-drinking water system treats the water stored in the building's cistern to the prescribed regulatory standard. 

NOTE dated March 25, 2020: The Kendeda Building is undergoing testing to certify its rainwater-to-drinking water purification system. In the meantime, the building is using municipal water. To date, the building has collected and discharged more rainwater than water consumed from the municipal system and is therefore on track for meeting its net positive water requirement.