Green Neighbors

A total of 238 developments have signed up to participate in the LEED for Neighborhood Development—the pilot rating system launched jointly by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) , the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU).

The program will be the first national certification system for sustainable neighborhood design and development. LEED for Neighborhood Development will integrate the principles of smart growth, new urbanism and green building into the design and development of communities, moving beyond the single green building approach.

NRDC’s Smart Growth program helped to establish the LEED for Neighborhood Development pilot program by soliciting the help of several smart growth experts to participate on the committee of volunteers that authored the rating system. The principles of smart growth focus on the importance of considering location, transportation alternatives, equity and community form when developing land use plans.

CNU brought a number of leading planners and architects from the New Urbanist movement to help shape the new rating system. New Urbanism promotes compact neighborhood form, a wide range of urban housing types from multi-unit buildings to singe-family homes, a vibrant mix of uses within close proximity of each other, humane public spaces and well-connected streets and blocks serving users ranging from pedestrians and cyclists to transit riders and drivers.

Over the course of the next year, the pilot projects will seek certification and help to test the Neighborhood Development system. USGBC, CNU and NRDC will use the pilot program to learn more about how LEED for Neighborhood Development works with real-life pilot projects before revising and approving the final version of the system for a full public launch in 2008. 

Within the group of 238 projects participating in the pilot, there are projects located in 39 different states and six other countries. The projects range in size and nature, from urban infill projects that are less than an acre in size to whole new communities that are more than 12,000 acres. 

In addition, the pilot registration fee for 14 projects that are being led by non-profit and community-based entities was partially or wholly covered by a grant from The Kresge Foundation of Detroit. The Kresge Foundation has been a leading supporter of sustainable design for the nonprofit sector across the country.

More information is available at www.usgbc.org.