By Tony Wernke and Greg Yoko

How many green buildings have you actually seen? We mean really the color green. Isn’t it odd that the “green” in the title of building and sustainability programs refers to the environmental impact of the buildings, but they rarely address the actual use of the “green” already located on the land development site.

LEEDing by Default
By far, the most common green building programs have been designed and implemented by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). First implemented about six years ago, the USGBC has currently established six LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating Systems®: LEED-NC (for new commercial construction and major renovation projects); LEED-EB (existing building operations); LEED-CI (commercial interiors projects); LEED-CS (core and shell projects); LEED-H (homes); and LEED-ND (neighborhood development).

While not a government agency, the USGBC is saddled with delays in implementation that is often found in large bureaucracies. Its structure as a voluntary, consensus-based organization, while noble, has limitations. Attempting to establish what are essentially national sustainability standards, while trying to include input from a wide variety of constituents has proven to be very time-intensive.

Ironically, the thousands, and perhaps millions, of buildings that have been constructed since 2000 and during the record-setting housing boom, were not able to be included in sustainable implementation to a large degree.

Since its founding in 1993, USGBC has been focused on fulfilling the building and construction industry’s vision for its own transformation to high-performance green building. Today, it includes 6,300 member companies and organizations and supports an aggressive education and advocacy program delivered through 60 chapters across the US.

According to USGBC’s website, over 3,750 projects have initiated the registration process, which is the first step to earning LEED certification. To date, just over 500 projects have been certified, a small fraction of projects that have been put in place over the last 13 years since the program started.
Implementation of the LEED principles on any significant basis has been hindered by the two factors that cause builders and developers the greatest problems: time and money. Getting LEED certified can take 3-6 years and costs can be as high 10 percent of a project’s budget.1 Aware that these are issues for most private projects, the USGBC has been taking steps to resolve them.

The Problem As We See It
By no means is the USGBC’s LEED program the only option for green building and project certification. In fact, there are dozens and even hundreds when you account for regional, state, and community programs.

However, most of them have two things in common. They focus almost exclusively on the building structures and virtually ignore the part of the project that can really impact its “greenness” and sustainability, the site.

We believe the SITESS: Systems Integration Tool for Environmentally Sustainable Sites detailed on the previous pages is a significant step in the right direction. Likewise, the LEED-ND is expanding the scope beyond buildings.

Ironically, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started using a hybrid of LEED in 2002, Sustainable Project Rating Tool (SPiRiT), that encompasses much more site-specific concerns in the land development project. (See page 20)

Even with all of these fine initiatives and programs, we believe that improvements and enhancements must be made to address the triple-bottom-line approach that has been identified a number of ways. We believe that social, environmental, and economic accountability must all factor into the sustainable equation.

Land development needs to occur for our society to prosper, but it needs to be done with an environmental conscious. It is naïve to think that the social and environmental concerns will be automatically addressed without considering economic factors. Land development is an economic development initiative that helps churn our national, regional, and local economies. If it cannot be done profitably, it will simply not be done.

How About the Land Developer?
Most of the available programs focus extensively on the social and environmental benefits without taking into consideration that development will simply not happen without an owner/developer. This means that economic and financial considerations must be addressed.

Fortunately, this realization is starting to happen.

What developers need is not a list of things they need to do, but methods, costs, realistic life-cycle benefits, and detailed research and explanations that they can use to obtain financing and utilize as workable marketing tools.

More importantly, they need professional design consultants – not just building architects - that are willing to do things differently.

The unfortunate, but prevalent and standard, practice of clearing and stripping the land of all vegetation as the first step of land development must stop! It must be explained and illustrated that this very same vegetation, from prairies to mature trees, that is often viewed as development obstacles is the least expensive form of stormwater management and erosion control mitigation.

Mature trees, as opposed to young saplings planted by landscape contractors after a development is completed, significantly enhance the property value of housing lots. They also provide the cooling mechanism for the building structures by providing wind and sun protection. A community forest canopy can provide infrastructure for an entire urban ecosystem.

Technology and ordinances are now in place in many parts of the country that can facilitate the protection and successful maintenance of mature trees within a development by increasing the use of pervious pavements. In addition, neighborhood roads are being constructed without curbs and gutters, increasing local infiltration of rain while reducing costs associated with water conveyance pipes and facilities.

It is not, and will not be, easy to change the design and development traditions in this country. However, it needs to be done. Land Development Today intends to take a lead on this issue. We will begin with a three-part series next month on one aspect of land development design that can begin to make a difference. SLDT