LEEDing the Way into Sustainable Neighborhood Development

If you run out of milk, do you have to grab your keys and drive to the store, or is walking a few blocks an option? How many gallons of gas do you consume on a weekly basis as you drive kids to school or to the park? And, how much of your time, money, and energy is lost in the process?

As our communities have grown, so have the distances we travel. But, we're now seeing a renewed interest in creating neighborhoods that address the problems that sprawling cities have created.

One such solution is the advent of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system. The last two years have seen an incredible increase in new buildings and retrofits, which improve energy efficiency, reduce water use, and develop a means to trim future expenses.

While energy use in our buildings account for 40 percent of our energy consumption, our vehicles contribute up to 30 percent. The current LEED systems speak somewhat to this latter issue, but it's the pending LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) certification that will specifically address this. LEED-ND expands the evaluation from a single building to an entire neighborhood. With this new guideline, cities, developers, consultants, and others will have a standard language to use in creating more sustainable neighborhoods.

In addition to the sustainability benefits, this system also helps provide a language for smart growth. The new urbanist movement, and more specifically the Congress of the New Urbanism, has spoken this language for several decades. The intersection of the green and smart growth movements will undoubtedly provide this system a boost.

To explain what a LEED-ND project would look like, I'll refer you back to my childhood growing up in a small town. First, we lived within a five-minute walk of nearly everything we needed. We had no need to drive to the store, the park, a baseball game, the fishing hole, or the hardware store because it was just as easy to walk. The independence we had as kids was unique. It's only now that we've realized how lucky we were!

The street I lived on was quite busy -- with foot traffic, not cars. It wasn't uncommon on any given evening to see a hundred people walk by on evening strolls. Many would stop to visit, partly because our front porch was with 10 feet of the walk and the challenge of conversation was eased due to proximity.

A wide diversity of places existed within a block or two of my house, including a college, a baseball stadium, a park, a school, and shops. Additionally, high-priced homes were next to lower-priced homes all on the same block. Looking at this from a zoning perspective, it would simply be illegal in most municipalities to recreate what was organic, organized growth.

My folks both worked within five minutes of home. No timely commutes or traffic delays. Looking back, our family only needed one reliable car and one that was a questionable stand-by. I'm sure the additional money saved helped pay for many other needs growing up.

All of these items are both sustainable and smart growth practices. The recipe isn't rocket science. We have many examples of what would qualify as LEED-ND neighborhoods and communities across this country. Generally speaking, most urban areas built before World War II and small towns of nearly all time frames exhibit these characteristics.

Over the last several years, Olsson Associates has spent significant time educating staff members, researching built examples, and designing projects under the LEED system. We're waiting patiently for the full implementation of the LEED-ND system this fall so that we can serve our clients in planning and designing these communities.

So far, we know that LEED-ND will emphasize creating compact, walkable, vibrant, mixed-use neighborhoods with good connections to nearby communities. The benefits to project developers for these communities include potentially reduced fees or waiting periods, more cohesive neighborhoods, and higher tenancy rates. If you have questions as the LEED-ND system is implemented, please feel free to contact me or any of your Olsson contacts.

With the green and smart growth movements shifting into focus for the mainstream public, we're poised for a great tomorrow, which should allow us to buy that gallon of milk without needing car keys!