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

Join the discussion on the LEED for Neighborhood Development Tumblr Forum. Discuss the latest news, updates and projects for the initiative.

Certification Now Open

Project teams are now able to certify their projects. Begin by registering the project in LEED Online. Submission forms for all three stages of certification can be viewed before registration in LEED Online. A new certification feature is the Smart Location & Linkage (SLL) Prerequisite Review, which enables projects to assess their location against the SLL prerequisites before paying for a full certification. For full registration information, please visit the GBCI Website. To learn more about LEED-ND certification, 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.