The U.S. Green Building Council, the Congress for the New Urbanism, and the Natural Resources Defense Council have come together to develop LEED for Neighborhood Development, a rating system that will integrate the principles of smart growth, urbanism, and green building into the first national standard for neighborhood design.

Where other LEED products focus primarily on green building practices, with only a few credits regarding site selection, LEED for Neighborhood Development will emphasize smart growth aspects and neighborhood design of development while still incorporating a selection of the most important green building practices.

Guided by the Smart Growth Network's ten principles of smart growth and the Charter for New Urbanism, it will include compact design, proximity to transit, mixed use, mixed housing type, and pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly design. In short, LEED for Neighborhood Development will create a label which could serve as a concrete signal of, and incentive for, better location, design, and construction of neighborhoods and buildings.

Resources available through this program include:

· LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System Preliminary Draft Document. This draft of the LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System is not final, and will likely be revised significantly before it is used for the pilot program. A Fact Sheet for this initiative is also available.

· LEED for Neighborhood Development Public Health Report. This report 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.

This is one of the first reports that not only summarizes the impact of the built environment on public health topics but also discusses how this information can be translated into positive changes to the built environment.

For the latest information, visit the LEED for Neighborhood Development webpage.

11/24/2006