Vermont’s Regional Green Building Environmental Issues:
We had 21 responses to VGBN’s Online Environmental Issues Survey to identify important local issues for LEED™ Regionalization (see http://sites.google.com/site/leedregionalizationvermont/Home ) . Out of 15 environmental issues, the following were ranked important by more than 50% of the respondents:
1. Agricultural and open space preservation, and
2. Operating building energy environmental impacts
and the following were ranked important by more than 25% of the respondents:
3. Greenhouse gas emissions
4. Wildlife habitat and biodiversity
5. Operating transportation (commuting) environmental impacts
6. Local business or resources use
7. Water quality
8. Occupant wellness
9. Construction and demolition environmental impacts
5 Regional Environmental Zones:
Five environmental zones were identified for the entire Upper Northeast Region (New England and New Your Upstate) based on distinct environmental issues identified in other states:
1. Large Urban – none in Vermont
2. Small Urban – Only two zip codes in Vermont*, where community connection assumed to be a given.
3. Small Towns and Rural – Almost ALL of Vermont, incentivizing community connection.
4. Coastal – none in Vermont, yet!
5. Forestland, Parkland, and Unincorporated – portions of remote NEK without any potential community connection. (more than 15 miles from Island Pond).
Small Towns and Rural Environmental Zone coverd most of Vermont:
In aligning the issues identified for Vermont with regional issues, the following environmental issues were identified as being of importance the Small Towns and Rural Environmental Zone:
o Historical and aging existing building stock threatened.
o Rise in greenhouse gas emissions.
o Impact on Wildlife habitat and biodiversity.
o Overdevelopment of farmland and greenfield sites.
o Encourage density in settled areas and connectivity including transportation ( encourage historical settlement patterns and cultural resource preservation )
o Disappearance of night sky affecting nocturnal ecosystems.
o Dependence on non-renewable resources for energy needs.
o Storm water run-off (quality and quantity) polluting water bodies and groundwater.
o Overloaded, aging and failing sewerage and septic systems polluting groundwater and water bodies.
o Poor indoor air quality within new and renovated buildings including radon and other pollutants.
o Aging and Abandoned buildings with environmental issues.
o Degraded eco-system services
o Loss of food security and local food production.
LEED™ for New Construction Bonus Credits:
As it applies to LEED™ New Construction the following credits were selected to be eligible for one additional point in the Small Towns and Rural Environmental Zone:
- SS 2 Development Density & Community Connectivity
- SS 3 Brownfield Redevelopment
- SS 6.2 Stormwater Design, Quality Control
- WE 2 Innovative Wastewater Technologies
- EA 2 Renewable Energy
- MR 1.2 Building Reuse, Maintain 75% of Existing Walls, Floors & Roof (although MR 1.3 was preferred locally but not eligible)
As it applies to LEED™ Commercial Interiors and Existing Building Operation & Maintenance, similar credits were selected to align with the environmental issues and the differences in the rating system.
Next Steps
This first round of LEED regionalization should be completed and announced at Greenbuild (Nov 19-20 in Boston). The task team hopes to summarize and report on possible improvements for future rounds including: 1) current LEED credits do not address regional environmental issues, 2) limitations of 5 digit zip codes mapping settlement patterns, 3) improvements on the communication process allowing more transparent input and evaluation of environmental issues.
* - Note that the Small Towns and Rural Environmental Zone encourages community connection while the Small Urban Environmental Zone addresses heat island and other issues specific to developed areas in which almost all the building sites already have community connection. Due to the limitation of the current LEED Regionalization program in identifying environmental zones based on 5 digit zip codes, there are only two zip codes in Vermont in which almost all the sites already have community connection being 05401 (Burlington) and 05404 (Winooski) [edited 6-8-09 add 05404 (UVM)]. If in the future, the Environmental Zones could distinguish Downtowns & Villages from Rural Areas, LEED Regionalization might be more effective in addressing local sustainable site issues.
