LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND)

Summary

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.

More than one-third of greenhouse gas emissions are produced by buildings (primarily in heating and cooling), but another third is spent transporting people and goods to and from those buildings -- and transportation emissions are growing much faster. Workplaces, shops and residences -- even energy-efficient ones -- in remote, auto-dependent locations generate vastly more transportation-related emissions than locations in urban places where transit-use, walking, and bicycling are viable options. Simply put, no building can be considered truly green unless it’s in a green urban neighborhood -- and the principles of traditional city and town design as promoted by the CNU are essential guidelines for creating and supporting these neighborhoods. By focusing on traditional neighborhood design principles -- such as density, proximity to transit, mixed use, mixed housing type, and pedestrian friendly neighborhoods -- LEED-ND is recognizing the environmental benefits inherent in New Urbanism.

LEED-ND aims to encourage development teams, planners, and local governments to construct sustainable, compact neighborhoods. The new program rates neighborhoods according to four categories: smart location and linkage; neighborhood pattern and design; green infrastructure and buildings; and innovation and design process. Like other LEED systems, this one identifies core prerequisites -- such as avoiding critical wildlife habitat and having streets open to the general public -- as well as dozens of additional characteristics, which projects must meet to gain any of the four levels of LEED certification: certified, silver, gold, and platinum. Ultimately, LEED-ND's standardized benchmark will encourage and measure existing trends toward revitalizing existing urban areas with walkable neighborhoods, consequently reducing the number of automobile trips and preserving natural, undeveloped lands.

 

Second Public Comment Period

Please review and comment on the latest draft of LEED-ND. This comment period follows on the heals of an intense editing process in response to over 5,000 comments received during the first public comment period earlier this year. The prerequisites and credits available for comment will be limited to those that have been significantly revised based on the advice of the public and the experience from the pilot projects.

USGBC is hosting the online commenting form. After a simple sign-in function, you can target comments to specific prerequisites and credits. Please review the current draft of LEED-ND and enter your comments before the June 14 deadline. Refer to CNU's guide to the second comment period draft for more information.

CNU is calling on New Urbanists to continue to review the draft and offer their advice and support. This latest version includes a number of key revisions have been made based on the recommendations of New Urbanists. This public comment period represents the best opportunity to affirm these changes and provide overall feedback before the rating system is officially launched.

Join the LEED-ND Corresponding Committee to receive up-to-date information on the rating system. Email nd@committees.usgbc.org .

Timeline

  • Public Comment opens May 1, 2009
  • Public Comment closes June 14, 2009
  • CNU Member Balloting Summer 2009

Resources

Second Public Comment Version

First Public Comment Version

Pilot Version

General Information

Contact information

Nora Beck, CNU Planning Associate, 312/551-7300, nbeck {at} cnu org

Photo: Excelsior & Grand in St. Louis Park, Minn. has been Registered for the LEED-ND Pilot. (Photo credit: Alec Johnson, AC Johnson Photography)