With any new industry, there will be issues and conflicts that must be resolved.  The green building industry is no different.  Through Green Building Law Update, I aim to point out the problematic regulations and industry trends that are ripe for litigation (i.e. LEEDigation) in order to hopefully prevent some of these issues and conflicts from arising.

Builders covet LEED certification — it stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — as a way to gain tax credits, attract tenants, charge premium rents and project an image of environmental responsibility. But the gap between design and construction, which LEED certifies, and how some buildings actually perform led the program last week to announce that it would begin collecting information about energy use from all the buildings it certifies.

Alexander, Don; Tomalty, Ray. Local Environment, Nov2002, Vol. 7 Issue 4, p397-409, 13p

In this paper, we focus on the issues related to development densities that emerged from our study of sprawl and development issues in three regions of British Columbia, Canada. We chose to focus on this aspect of the Smart Growth agenda because, while many of its other elements enjoy wide support across social interests, the goal of achieving a higher density urban fabric is highly controversial. We proceeded by collecting data on development densities and 13 indicators of community sustainability in 26 municipalities. The results suggest that the density of communities is associated with efficiencies in infrastructure and with reduced automobile dependence, with the ecological and economic implications which flow from that. However, it does not necessarily correlate with greater affordability of housing or more access to green space. In fact, if anything, we discovered a negative relationship between housing affordability and green space per capita and higher land-use densities. In a second stage of the research, we conducted a qualitative analysis of a subset of six municipalities and identified key policy issues for moving ahead with the Smart Growth agenda. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy issues that emerged from these case studies.

[ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ISSN: 13549839

DOI: 10.1080/1354983022000027578

The Adoption of Sustainable Development Policies and Techniques in U.S. Cities How Wide, How Deep, and What Role for Planners? Edward J. Jepson, Jr. Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Tennessee–Knoxville. In this article, sustainable development is defined in terms of thirty-nine policies and techniques. In October 2001, a survey was sent to U.S. cities that (1) measures the extent to which actions are being taken relative to these policies and techniques and to local planning offices being involved in the taking of such actions and (2) identifies the principal impediments to the taking of action. Among the findings were that communities of all sizes and in all parts of the country are active in a wide range of policies and techniques, planning offices are playing an important leadership role with respect to the adoption of such policies and techniques, and impediments to such adoption are less related to politics and institutional capacity and more to motivation and knowledge.

Key Words: sustainable development • local planning • impediments

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 23, No. 3, 229-241 (2004)

DOI: 10.1177/0739456X03258638

The Willets Point Redevelopment Plan has been designed to include exciting retail and entertainment offerings, a hotel and convention center, thousands of mixed-income residential units and new public open spaces and other community amenities. The mixed-use program will create thousands of new permanent jobs and construction jobs, transforming Willets Point into a dynamic regional destination.

January 2008
Saving the World Through Zoning
The sustainable community development code comes to the rescue.
By Chris Duerksen

The United States has almost 90 million residential structures. While few have been built in a sustainable manner, we are nevertheless beginning to see more interest in green or environmentally sustainable housing. Most discussions of sustainable housing focus on the environmental and economic aspects, overlooking the social dimension. Achieving sustainable housing requires a holistic framework, incorporating the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainability in equal parts. Planners must help ensure that social equity is given equal attention during discussions of sustainable housing.

GreenBiz.com™ is the flagship website of Greener World Media, the world's first and only mainstream media company focused exclusively on sustainability and the competitive edge it brings to businesses. Founded by green business pioneer Joel Makower and B-to-B publishing veteran Pete May, Greener World Media also produces:

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008.