The LEED for Neighborhood Development green neighborhoods rating system has been launched.
The rating system encourages development within or near existing communities and/or public infrastructure in order to reduce the environmental impacts of sprawl. It aims to conserve land and promotes transportation efficiency and walkability.
"LEED for Neighborhood Development projects are strategically located in or surrounding metropolitan areas — often times revitalising brownfields, infills or other underutilized spaces, opening new revenue streams, creating jobs opportunities and helping to drive the local, state and national economies," says Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO & founding chair, USGBC.
"Half of the buildings we will have in 25 years are not yet on the ground," says Kaid Benfield, director of the Smart Growth Program, Natural Resources Defense Council.
"Where we put them is even more important to the environment than how we build them, and NRDC is proud to stand alongside our partners with a system that helps guide them to the right places while avoiding the wrong ones."
NRDC helped to establish LEED for Neighborhood Development by soliciting the help of Smart Growth America, a national coalition of organisations working for better communities and recruiting smart growth experts to participate on the committee of volunteers that authored the rating system.
CNU brought a number of 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 single-family homes, a 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.
The scope of LEED for Neighborhood Development projects can range from small projects to whole communities and encompasses a broader set of stakeholders in the process.
Due to the scale of neighborhood developments, projects will be measured on land size — the first LEED rating system to do so.
