GreenTown: The Promise of LEED and neighborhood development

(This article is part of a series of postings based upon our attendance of the GreenTown Conference in Grand Rapids.)

The last morning session featured Doug Farr, founder of Farr Associates Architecture and Urban Design, Inc. Farr has written a book on sustainable urban planning entitled Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature.

Farr acknowledges that efficiency is not enough, since research shows that the more efficient we make things in the US, the more people will consume, which in essence cancels out any gains made in efficiency.

Farr also acknowledges that LEED buildings in a one building at a time approach is also not very effective and ultimately not sustainable. LEED construction needs to be more strategic and part of a larger system of sustainability.

One example Farr gave is when one community built a new school 3 miles outside of town. The new school was a LEED building, but it was no longer in a neighborhood and forced more people to drive their kids to school.

Another example was that of a fitness center that had an escalator outside for people to get to the building from the parking lot. LEED planners might ask if the escalator could be more efficient instead of asking whether or not it was needed.

Farr looked at other examples in various communities around the country. What Farr ultimately suggested was needed is to have LEED being discussed as part of municipal master plans, where LEED construction is part of a larger view of planning an design, which incorporates transit, water diversion and other sustainable components.

One example that Farr provided was a community where instead of a traffic round about where no people could be, they fought to get the round about to be a place that people could enjoy – sit and recreate.

Farr then discussed a model for a residential area in South London (discussed in detail in his book) that incorporated energy, housing and land use. What was interesting was that the project not only utilized good technology, but it changed people’s attitudes and behavior, something that the presenter said is always difficult to measure, but an important component for future sustainability.

LEED-ND incorporates the 10 principles of Smart Growth and the outcome of what he referred to as the “New Urbanism.” He showed the audience a map of the US and Canada that were involved in a LEED-ND project, but unfortunately no Michigan communities were included.

Farr then discussed more of the how to’s with implementing what he called LEED-ND pre-requisites, such as walkable streets, smart locations and green infrastructure and buildings. Farr says that residential density is important, accessibility, local food production and neighborhood schools should also all be part of LEED certification. Farr even said that they received significant support and endorsement from health professionals with the CDC.

The last example he showed the audience was in Victoria, Canada. This project was a LEED-ND, where all 26 buildings were platinum certified and the investor was making money off the project even more than he thought because they were taking household waste and making energy pellets to sell to the local municipality. Farr then said that here is a great example of how capitalism can work and in fact the presenter said he believes in capitalism and that it will work if we all think better about how to make this happen.

While the presenter provided some interesting data and some good examples, he did not address how LEED-ND could be a strategy that benefits everyone, particularly the growing number of those living in poverty. Farr did not address the concerns that many critics have that LEED and LEED-ND primarily serves the interests of those with more disposable income and the new urban professional class.

This concern is not a marginal one and unfortunately because of time constraints was not part of the dialogue during the Q&A, since the session was already running overtime and did not afford more audience participation with the presenter.