OPPI / CIP Conference: LEED-ing by Design

Spacing contributor Ian Malczewski spent September 30 – October 3 in Niagara Falls at a joint conference held by the Ontario Professional Planners Institute and the Canadian Institute of Planners. He is sharing some of the lessons he learned there and reflecting on their implications on public space, livability, and sustainability in cities.

The first session I attended at the OPPI / CIP conference was called LEED-ing by Design. The purpose of this workshop was to educate planners about Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – Neighbourhood Development (LEED ND), which, according to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), aims to “integrate the principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building into the first national system for neighborhood design.” Knowing a bit about LEED Building certification (as well as some of its critiques), I was curious to see what design elements would apply at the neighbourhood scale.

LEED ND (currently in a pilot phase) offers credits across a number of areas of neighbourhood design, including, “Smart Location and Linkage,” “Neighbourhood Pattern and Design,” “Green Infrastructure and Buildings,” and “Innovation and Design Process.” Provided a development meets certain prerequisites (such as developing in or near public transportation corridors), these credits can be put towards applying for LEED certification. While this process helps improve developers’ bottom line by helping them sell units more quickly, it also creates harmonized guidelines to build the kinds of people-scaled neighbourhoods we got away from in the late half of the twentieth century.

I was encouraged to see the public realm was prominent in these guidelines, with developments earning points for providing public spaces within walking distance of people’s homes. Developments can also earn credits for encouraging “connected and open communities, “mixed-use neighbourhood centres,” “bicycle network and storage,” and “local food production.” The full check list (PDF) is available from the USGBC.

In addition to contextualizing neighbourhood design in Ontario’s current land use policy framework, the panel presented two Canadian projects participating in the LEED ND pilot program, including the Currie Barracks development in Calgary and a handful from Toronto’s waterfront (the East Bayfront, West Don Lands, and North Keating, all of which have achieved Stage 1 LEED ND Gold certification). The Waterfront Toronto designed neighbourhoods in particular impressed me, with their developments placing public space at the heart of creating sustainable and livable neighbourhoods (more about this in future post).

While I left the workshop agreeing that LEED ND guidelines could help create livable and sustainable communities, I did have one nitpick: the certification only applies to new-build redevelopment projects. Careful redevelopment of greyfields, brownfields, and greenfields is an important component to city-building, but sustainable urban development discussions increasingly focus on retrofitting existing communities rather than building new ones (see the current issue of Spacing for more discussion about these issues). As I understand it, LEED ND certification only applies to redevelopment and revitalization projects rather than retrofits.

To its credit, the USGBC did eventually adapt its LEED Buildings certification to include an accreditation for existing buildings, and if that principle shifts to neighbourhoods then LEED ND could help encourage neighbourhood change in a broader context. So while LEED might not yet offer a picture-perfect recipe for transforming into sustainable and livable places, it does take a step in the right direction.

Image courtesy of Waterfront Toronto.