New LEED Certification for Green Neighborhoods

Green Neighborhood

After five years of development, the U.S. Green Building Council has opened registration for its new LEED for Neighborhood Development (or LEED-ND) certification.

LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) integrates the principles of smart growth, New Urbanism and green building into the first national rating system for neighborhood design and was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in partnership with the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

LEED-ND recognizes development projects that successfully protect and enhance the overall health, natural environment and quality of life in communities. The rating system encourages smart growth and New Urbanist best practices by promoting the location and design of neighborhoods that reduce vehicle miles traveled and creating developments where jobs and services are accessible by foot or public transit. It also promotes an array of green building and green infrastructure practices, particularly more efficient energy and water use.

All LEED for Neighborhood Development projects are required to include at least one certified green building. Points are also available within the rating system for having certified green buildings in the development and for integrating green building and infrastructure practices within the project. These credits relate to energy efficiency, reduced water use, building reuse, recycled materials and heat island reduction.

Project Types
LEED for Neighborhood Development is designed to certify exemplary development projects that perform well in terms of smart growth, urbanism and green building. Projects may constitute whole neighborhoods, portions of neighborhoods or multiple neighborhoods. Projects are often mixed-use, though small single-use projects that complement existing neighborhood uses may also use the rating system.

Credit Categories
The following credit categories are included in the rating system:

• Smart Location and Linkage encourages communities to consider location, transportation alternatives, and preservation of sensitive lands while also discouraging sprawl.

• Neighborhood Pattern and Design emphasizes vibrant, equitable communities that are healthy, walkable and mixed-use.

• Green Infrastructure and Buildings promotes the design and construction of buildings and infrastructure that reduce energy and water use, while promoting more sustainable use of materials, reuse of existing and historic structures, and other sustainable best practices.

• Innovation and Design Process recognizes exemplary and innovative performance reaching beyond the existing credits in the rating system, as well as the value of including an accredited professional on the design team.

• Regional Priority encourages projects to focus on earning credits of significance to the project’s local environment.

Source: U.S. Green Building Council

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May 19th, 2010 by signaltree
Posted in Architectual |
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