LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND)

The Nation's First Rating System for Green Neighborhoods

CNU has partnered with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) to lay out a coordinated and powerful environmental strategy: sustainability at the scale of neighborhoods and communities. The joint venture, known as LEED for Neighborhood Development (or LEED-ND), is a system for rating and certifying green neighborhoods. LEED-ND builds on USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) systems, the world's best-known third-party verification that a development meets high standards for environmental responsibility. LEED-ND integrates the principles of new urbanism, green building, and smart growth into the first national standard for neighborhood design, expanding LEED's scope beyond individual buildings to a more holistic concern about the context of those buildings.

LEED-ND 2009 Final Version

• LEED 2009 for Neighborhood Development Rating System
  (ZIP - 12 MB)
• Project Checklist

General Information

• LEED-ND Public Presentation
• LEED-ND Background
• Frequently Asked Questions

Contact

Heather Smith, CNU Planning Director, 312/551-7300, hsmith {at} cnu org

Registration Now Open

Project teams are now able to register their projects in LEED Online. and download forms for the Smart Location & Linkage (SLL) Prerequisite Review. This new feature will enable projects to assess their locaiton against the SLL prerequisites before paying for a full certification. Full certification will be added in late 2010 and project teams will be notified as soon as more information is available. For full registration information, please visit the USGBC Website. To learn more about the SLL Prerequisite Review, check out the following documents.

• LEED-ND Project Certification FAQ
• LEED-ND Program FAQ

LEED-ND Resources

• A Citizen's Guide to LEED for Neighborhood Development is a handbook to help anyone interested in green practices learn, in user-friendly fashion, the ingredients that can make a neighborhood-scale development green. The Guide also includes a “Sustainable Neighborhood Development Checklist.” The checklist is a sort of “crib sheet” for every LEED-ND credit and prerequisite, presenting them in an easy-to-use format for evaluating development proposals, assessing existing neighborhoods, and informing community planning and policy.
• A Local Government Guide to LEED for Neighborhood Development explores how LEED-ND can be best used by local governments to achieve sustainability goals.
• The LEED Reference Guide for Green Neighborhood Development is now available in hardcopy and e-book. CNU Members receive a discount, visit Member Benefits for code.