Can another sustainability rating system replace LEED-ND certification for multi-family housing projects?

Abstract

Built facilities consume significant amounts of energy during their project life cycle, and there is an increasing need to measure facility sustainability performance. To ensure high sustainability performance, sustainability rating systems have been developed and employed to proactively identify potential issues and quantitatively compare project sustainability performance. With a focus on walkable community development for multi-family housing projects, this study compared two sustainability rating systems: the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Neighborhood Development (ND); and the Walk Score. The authors selected 26 LEED-ND (v2009) certified projects and collected 20 Walk Scores within the boundary of 250-meter from the center of each LEED-ND certified project. The result shows that the Walk Score (Max: 100) has a positive and statistically significant association (the coefficient: 0.4686 at the significant level of 0.005) with the LEED-ND score (Max: 110). However, no correlation was found between the Walk Score and the LEED-ND category pertaining to walkability—the Neighborhood Pattern & Design (NPD) score (Max: 44). So, while the Walk Score was found to be an alternative rating system for measuring sustainability performance, the authors determined that LEED-ND certification could not replace the Walk Score when it comes to assessing walkability.