A LEED-certified building in Shanghai.
Transportation-related measures are some of the lowest hanging fruit for developers seeking to reach LEED status with their new building or retrofit projects. These measures equal 10 percent and sometimes more as a piece of the puzzle.
And nobody needs to tell developers in this day and age how important gaining “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” status is to their bottom lines. Incoming tenants will pay top dollar to live, work, and play in LEED buildings, and developers can profitably claim that they have created a Class A space that is, incidentally, helping saving the planet one square foot at a time.
I work for Arlington Transportation Partners to help educate employers throughout this Virginia county of the benefits available to them and their employees by promoting strategies that get their workers out of their cars and into other means of healthier transport, such as transit, ridesharing, walking, and biking.
I often talk to my clients about environmental benefits associated with these better ways of getting around, and they are relatable to developers in their quests to reach LEED status as well.
Some things developers need to know about incorporating the commuting options employers and employees are demanding include:
- Alternative Commuting Transportation credits can make a large impact in your desire to become LEED certified. It’s important to think about how your populations will come to your location before you build.
- Allow ATP to tackle the process with you! You may be able to acquire points you weren’t aware of.
- There are credits available to you whether your populations take public transportation, bike, share their ride, or choose to not commute by working from anywhere.
- Some credits require infrastructure enhancements like bicycle racks and changing or showering facilities but can also include non-infrastructure enhancements like offering a transit benefit or allowing employees to work a compressed work week.
For more, please register to attend Mobility Lab’s LEED/Transportation Demand Management Symposium on November 29. The program will provide developers with a strategy to achieve LEED status for both new and refurbished buildings. Arlington Transportation Partners and Arlington Economic Development are co-hosting the symposium. And there will be more details to follow soon in this space.
Wendy Duren is program director of Arlington Transportation Partners
Photo by Flickr user \!/_PeacePlusOne