Output details

LEED ND: wider applications and new measures of urban sustainability.

LEED ND (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Neighbourhood Development) is the leading international sustainability standard for new urban developments, combining quantitative and qualitative metrics. Written and licenced by the US Green Building Council it is widely used in the US and increasingly worldwide outside of the UK. The methods of the research portfolio have been to expand the potential applications of LEED ND: both geographically to consider the potential for use in the UK; and in scope for use as an appraisal and enabling toolkit for the existing built environment. The work has benefitted from strong support by the US Green Building Council, in the sharing of their emerging evidence-base and future development of the sustainability standard; and in the reporting back of our findings to contribute to their evidence-base for future versions of LEED ND. New knowledge is thereby enabled through LEED ND as an open-source framework with a clear and accountable structure. The objectives of the research are to develop a field of knowledge in urban sustainability, by applying LEED ND in a variety of different circumstances and analysing the outcomes. These circumstances included: a comparison with competing sustainability standards in the UK; reviewing existing historic parts of the city of London from the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries; designing and testing a prototype for community participation in neighbourhood planning. The ‘open’ nature of LEED ND has pedagogical intent and the research has had a productive relationship with teaching on the MAASD course at UEL. The work has also attracted great interest in the UK and internationally and has resulted in a number of papers presented at academic conferences and invited lectures. The work has succeeded in expanding the argument that urban environmental knowledge needs to balance both quantitative and qualitative measures as a matter of principle.

See accompanying portfolio for bibliography and supporting information