What's Next for Sustainable Neighborhoods?

The Sustainable Neighborhoods initiative supports local / global organizing towards creation of sustainable communities worldwide.

Sustainable neighborhoods are born from both the positive hope and aspiration of community members to create ecological, democratic and genuinely humane neighborhoods and villages as well as from the harsh experiences of the dark side of human experience and communities out of balance with nature and society.

Over the next few months, we will be sharing more of our experience of networking for a new kind of neighborhood.

SN members will be posting regular updates here, and we will be undertaking a more systematic networking of local/global sustainable neighborhoods resources.

If you would like to contribute writing, resources or suggestions for this networking effort, please contact us to share your ideas and learn more.

The Next Generation of Green Building Thinking

The Next Generation of Green Building Thinking - From Green At Work
LEED for Neighborhood Development – the pilot rating system launched jointly by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) is off to a promising start. A total of 238 developments have signed up to participate in the pilot program, which will be the first national certification system for sustainable neighborhood design and development. LEED for Neighborhood Development will integrate the principles of smart growth, new urbanism, and green building into the design and development of communities, moving beyond the single green building approach. The LEED for Neighborhood Development pilot is on track to be one of the largest launches yet for a new LEED program. 

“The LEED for Neighborhood Development pilot program is the next generation of green building thinking,” said Rick Fedrizzi, USGBC President, CEO and Founding Chair. “By applying what we’ve learned about individual green buildings to entire neighborhoods, we’re linking urban planning and environmentally friendly design and construction in a whole new, beneficial and healthy way.” 

“Tapping the greenest building potential today means stepping outside the four walls of a structure into the places where projects are situated. Taking a more comprehensive approach lets builders draw on a host of new opportunities for reducing the overall environmental footprint by making communities mixed-use and pedestrian friendly,” said NRDC’s Ashok Gupta. “Creating a neighborhood-based standard encourages architects, builders and planners to think bigger about energy savings, transportation impacts, and the overall shape of cleaner, healthier, more efficient communities.”