LEED for Neighborhood Development

This is a nicely in-depth discussion of LEED-ND, it's background and current status, by Nate Berg in Planetizen:

What they came up with is a finely-tuned mix of USGBC’s materials and land use considerations, CNU’s urban design guidelines, and NRDC’s environmental and smart growth concerns. This three-layered lens evaluates projects by a number of criteria, including location, density, conservation of wetlands and agricultural lands, reduced automobile dependence, proximity to housing and jobs, walkability, energy efficiency, and a host of other measures. In total, LEED-ND has nine required benchmarks and 49 possible categories for which projects can be evaluated. Those involved with the creation of the standard are the first to admit it’s trying to cover a lot of ground. But the purpose, they say, is to create a more comprehensive explanation of what it takes to create environmentally sustainable developments.

“Getting accessibility, affordable housing, public involvement, and open communities all in LEED-ND I think was a healthy and rational expansion of the definition of sustainability” said Doug Farr, founding principal of the green architecture and planning firm Farr Associates, and chair of the LEED-ND Core Committee.

Farr says this new definition of sustainability was intentionally developed with such a wide net to stress the idea that urban design, land use and the environment are inextricably linked. In this way, LEED-ND can be looked at as an updated version of the famous Venn diagram of sustainability that shows the overlap of the environment, the economy and social equity.

“What LEED-ND really does is bring everything together and create coherence across all the specialties,” said John Norquist, CNU president and CEO, and also a member of the LEED-ND Core Committee.