While the U.S. Green Building Council has been busy changing all of their previous LEED credentials, they’ve also found time to introduce a brand new program called LEED Neighborhood Development (ND). LEED-ND is still being developed and is in a pilot program phase, which will soon end.
The purpose of LEED-ND is to “integrate the principles of smart growth, urbanism, and green building into the first national system for neighborhood design.” It is expected that the LEED-ND program will be complete and ready for professionals to start taking exams for the new credential in 2010.
The goals of having LEED-ND professionals in the building industry is to encourage responsible community planning, which will, in turn, encourage healthy living, reduce urban sprawl, and protect threatened species of animals. The USGBC claims that a LEED-ND professional will work to help create mixed-use neighborhoods, where nice homes are organized in a manner that makes residents feel safe and proud. Businesses, schools, and shops are incorporated at the perimeter.
This model encourages more people to walk and bike to work, school, and shopping, which will improve their own health as well as reduce carbon emissions, traffic, and general stress.
The typical neighborhood designed by these new LEED professionals will be located near city or town centers and close to alternative transportation access so that residents will not be so heavily reliant on personal automobiles. They will also work to maintain natural areas in the neighborhood, which will remain as recreational areas for the residents, as well as habitats for animals that would otherwise be misplaced.
Additionally, the LEED-ND is taught to take into account the needs of existing homes that happen to fall within or near the newly planned neighborhood, to ensure that they are not excluded from the benefits of the green-hood, but rather are encouraged to take measures that would bring their property in line with the standards of the changing area around them.