The New LEED for Neighborhood Development Standard
The LEED certification has primarily been focused on green standards for individual structures. The new LEED for Neighborhood Development standard expands upon that idea.
The U.S. Green Building Council is an entity that has come to the forefront of design in modern society. If you want to talk about being in the right place at the right time, this organization fits the bill perfectly. As the idea of building more energy efficient buildings started to become a movement, the Council became the pre-eminent entity for setting standards for what is now known as green building.
One criticism of the Council has been its lack of vision when it comes to the scope of change. The rather valid argument is simply this. What does it matter if one building is built to green standards if the neighborhood surrounding it is not? The Council has argued that incremental changes make a difference overall, but it has been a weak argument at best.
To its credit, the Council has avoided stubbornly sticking to its position. After far too many years, it has finally come out with a new LEED for Neighborhood Development standard. "LEED" is an abbreviation for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design by the way. Regardless, the new standard addresses the criticism the Council has received by setting forth a standard that looks at "the forest" instead of just "the trees."
So, just what will the standards be? Well, we don't know. The President of the Council, Richard Fedrizzi, will be announcing them at a press conference in Chicago on April 29th. Given the history of guidelines promoted by the Council in the past, one can expect the initial standards to be a bit conservative and then modified as time passes and certain concepts are show to work or not work in the field.
The U.S. Green Building Council has rightly been criticized for lacking a broader standard for neighborhoods when it comes to green building. With the announcement of the new LEED for Neighborhood Development standard, that criticism should be a thing of the past.