Terrific analysis of LEED-ND by the National Trust

Writing for PreservationNation, Barbara Campagna provides an excellent summary of LEED for Neighborhood Development and the new standards that we just published for public comment:

"LEED Neighborhood Development (ND) is in some respects as different from LEED 2009 as it is similar. It has a very different construct (4 sections instead of 6), was developed by a working group of three organizations - USGBC, Natural Resources Defense Council (representing the Smart Growth community) and Congress for New Urbanism - and focuses on infrastructure and the public realm, with buildings as just one component. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has been advising the staff at USGBC for the past 6 months on the final edits to LEED ND and we're very pleased to announce and discuss the changes that are out for public comment right now. And to encourage you to read the new system and send in your comments . . . To view the LEED for Neighborhood Development draft and submit comments online, please visit the USGBC website . . .

"LEED ND can be used on a single building, a Main Street, a community or even as a tool to retrofit suburbia. . . ."

For the entire, thoughtful analysis, go here.

This is a good opportunity for me to salute all of the National Trust's work on smart growth.  Under Dick Moe's visionary leadership, the Trust has taken the preservation movement beyond concern for individual buildings to concern for the neighborhood context in which those buildings operate.  This has been huge in the evolution of our broader movement.  Constance Beaumont, when she director of state policy at the Trust, was one of my very first mentors on these issues, and I'm still honored to work frequently with many of their very able staff.