LEED for Neighborhood Developments (LEED-ND)

What's New

May 2008: LEED-ND Pilot Projects Status Updated (pdf)

August 2007: LEED-ND Pilot Projects Announced

View a list of the 238 LEED-ND pilot projects sorted by state.

February 2007: LEED for Neighborhood Development Pilot Launches

June 2006: New LEED-ND Report Links Neighborhoods and Health

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 Developments (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, 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. Tthe new program rates neighborhoods according to four planned categories: location and linkage; compact, complete and connected neighborhoods; green construction and technology; and innovation and design. 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 trend towards revitalizing existing urban areas with walkable neighborhoods, consequently reducing the number of automobile trips and preserving natural, undeveloped lands.

Developing the Rating System
The LEED-ND Core Committee completed its first preliminary draft in September 2005 and held a 45-day comment period that yielded more than 2,000 comments. The current public draft was released in February 2007 and opened to a select group of early-adopter projects, known as "pilot projects." Download a PDF of LEED-ND, Pilot Version; a condensed version is included in the "one page" summary below.

The pilot phase will issue provisional certifications to selected development applicants who meet the revised standards. The pilot phase will evaluate a number of diverse projects at various stages of planning and construction across the nation. Two additional public comment periods will be held before the system receives final approval.

Get Involved
Join the LEED-ND Corresponding Committee to receive progress updates and first opportunities to respond to calls for comments and pilot LEED-ND projects. To join, USGBC members can go to the USGBC website; non-members can email nd@committees.usgbc.org

The LEED-ND Report on Public Health and the Built Environment comprehensively summarizes the relationship between how our communities are designed – land use, design character, transportation system, and density – and a series of public health outcomes such as physical activity, traffic crashes, respiratory health and mental health. The report was supported with funding from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control, and sponsored by the LEED for Neighborhood Development partnership.

Contact information
Contact: Payton Chung, CNU Research Coordinator, 312/551-7300, pchung{at}cnu org

Frequently Asked Questions
See the file below.

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