By Brendan Owens, senior vice president of LEED Technical Development
Near the end of a recent teleconference of the LEED Steering Committee, an extraordinary group of experts that represents the building industry and is charged by the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Board of Directors with development and implementation of the LEED rating system, something interesting happened. The discussion turned to mitigating the carbon emissions of buildings, something I’m very excited to say the newest iteration of LEED v4.1 does better than any previous version.
All of a sudden, the conversation was dominated by the three members of the LEED Steering Committee who call New York City home. New York is in the vanguard of cities aggressively addressing their carbon footprint. New Yorkers are proud of this fact and dutifully carry the responsibility for implementing the policy and technical evolutions necessary to succeed.
New York’s accomplishments in carbon reduction shouldn’t come as a surprise, as the state consistently ranks in the top five of USGBC’s “Top 10 States for LEED” campaign, an annual ranking of the total square footage of LEED-certified space per resident certified in each state during that year. New York City, in particular, has been a long-time leader in innovative design and construction. Its developers and designers were some of the earliest inspirations for, and adopters of, LEED. In addition to rigorously implementing LEED, New York City is also executing on its 80×50 carbon plan—one of the most ambitious in the country—to reduce carbon emissions. New Yorkers are excited to deliver on this mandate, and they’ve worked hard to ensure that LEED is positioned as a key part of how the city responds to our global climate crisis and climate-related risks.
New York is also well represented on the LEED Steering Committee that approved LEED v4.1. On many levels, LEED v4.1 is USGBC’s best work yet. It’s our most comprehensive, collaborative, accessible and effective LEED system to date. We’ve also embedded full performance outcomes into LEED v4.1, making it the first true performance standard for buildings, communities and cities.
And specific to carbon, I’m very excited to say, LEED v4.1 epitomizes the leadership being shown in New York City. One of the big steps that we agreed on for LEED v4.1 was to not only raise our energy reference standard to ASHRAE 90.1 2016, but to also add a carbon metric for the first time to the rating systems for new and existing buildings to directly measure the building’s climate impact as directed by both the efficiency of the building, onsite generation and storage and the grid it is part of.
This March, I participated in New York Build 2019, where I was able to share insights on our latest advances with LEED and the Living Standard we are challenging the market to uphold. As LEED advances, we are better able to link the more visible outcomes of green building to quality of life.
At USGBC, we have a vision that buildings and communities will regenerate and sustain the health and vitality of all life within a generation. And, we know that, in order to realize a sustainable future for all, the next generation of green building must expand beyond buildings to also focus on the development of smart cities and communities.
While New York City is a leader in implementing climate mitigation policy through tactics like LEED, there’s so much more to be done. Cities all over the country and world have a responsibility to reduce carbon and increase quality of life.
Our cities must adopt smart city and smart grid policies, implement technologies that improve their performance, and continue to incorporate concepts like wellness and sustainable sites into planning and development. But cities face many challenges in this day and age—citizens are demanding more transparency and information about the places where they live, work, learn and play.
Programs like USGBC’s LEED for Cities allows us to address these concerns on a global scale. Now, more than ever, local governments are becoming laboratories of innovation and are committing to social problem solving. Leaders, especially in growing cities, have an enormous opportunity to initiate a dynamic dialogue with citizens and earn their trust in the process. LEED for Cities is the ideal framework to ensure smart cities at a global scale as it provides all citizens and their leaders with a detailed view of city-wide performance.
The green building playbook is full of strategies like LEED for Cities and LEED v4.1 that produce a higher standard of living for populations in communities all over the world, addressing economic, environmental and human health concerns. The work being done in New York to improve quality of life in buildings, communities and cities across the state sets an excellent example for the rest of the world.
