PLAN612 Term Paper: Sustainable Transportation and LEED for Cities/Communities

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Sustainable Transportation and LEED for Cities/Communities -Shuchita Jain, MUP

Abstract There is a growing understanding in the planning industry that America’s transportation issues are lot more of land use and human behavioural issues rather than simply inefficiencies of a particular mobility system on its own. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to put it this way – a transportation system is only as sustainable as the larger community it serves and sits within. This understanding calls for siting of sustainable transportation queries alongside system-wide sustainable development initiatives.

While until recently, certification systems, USGBC led LEED being the most popular and used, have primarily dealt at building-scale sustainability, we are seeing appreciable gain in scope and applicability of these certifications. For example LEED Neighbourhood Development and very recent LEED City and Communities are now capable of delivering performance evaluation of large-scale, even city-wide urban ecosystems. With this background, some of the particular inquiries that are made and presented in this paper are: 

Within the progressive planning context, wherein cities and communities are trying to showcase their sustainability achievements in a measurable way, what are the aspects of transportation planning the certificates address or influence?

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Which of these aspects the certificate systems drive most influence on and which aspects they fail to influence significantly?

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Are the certifications really capable of delivering transportation impacts over large geographic entities?

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Finally, what could be the advantages of comprising and implementing a government’s transportation goals in close accordance with the certification systems?

Transport Planning and Certification Systems This paper presents and discusses five certificate or sustainability assessment systems that have gained popularity amongst practitioners and scholars in recent times in context of large area sustainability planning.

STAR Communities It is presently the nation’s leading program for assessing comprehensive sustainability for large geographic entities like Counties, Cities, and urban Campuses. The certification system consists of seven total main categories of scoring a community. The framework mainly consists of a series of Outcomes and Actions on basis of which the scores are given. The program can be said to offer communities a thorough list of Goals and Policies or Actions in a more commonly used local planning language.

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Transportation is most directly addressed under the subhead of BE-7 Transportation Choices under the main category of Built Environment. Out of a total of 11 stated Actions, at least six require some form of improvement specifically for walkability and bike-ability, and the others address multi-modal transport including access to transit.

Transportation-related Actions can also be found within other categories of the plan. For example, under Natural Systems, NS-4 Outdoor Air Quality, one of the Actions requires improving traffic signal timing or upgrading of intersections to relieve auto congestion.

Parksmart Parksmart is the world’s only certification system designed to reward sustainable parking garages. With a larger aim to make a positive impact for sustainable mobility infrastructure, the Certification evaluates parking projects under three main scoring categories: Management; Programs; and Technology and Structure Design.

The Management scoring category enlists strategies like pricing of parking facility, shared parking, and use of sustainable products, recycling and cleaning practices. Also present are strategies that reward a third party sustainable certification and life cycle assessment. The Programs section mostly deals with aspects of space planning and programming within a sustainable parking structure. Credits may be awarded for aspects such as Placemaking, Transit access, Traffic Flow Plan, Car share program, Bicycle rental and sharing program, reserved space for alternative fuel vehicles, inclusion of alternative fuel vehicles in the fleet etc. Technology and Structure Design category scores on aspects of installation of environment friendly installations for Fire, 3 | Page

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HVAC, surface Coatings, Lighting and Ventilation systems. Also includes use of on-site renewable energy, durable design, roofing, landscaping etc.

Above – Image showing use of LED dimmable lighting at Cal Poly Pomona Parking Structure 2, in California, a Parksmart Bronze structure.

Source - parksmart.gbci.org

Envision Envision is infrastructure rating system by the Institute of Sustainable Infrastructure. The system is relatively a newcomer but fills an important gap in sustainability indicator programs in US -- a sustainability rating system for infrastructural buildings covering the most types - Energy, Water, Waste, Transport, Landscape, and Information infrastructure. The system is of relevance to a variety of public entities, ranging from small town government departments to large, multi-jurisdictional agencies. Envision is designed to be used as a template for project planning as it offers a comprehensive list of criteria that any sustainable infrastructure project is expected to address. Envision has total 60 sustainability credit criteria, and these are further divided into five sections, namely, Quality of Life, Leadership, Resource Allocation, Natural World, and Climate 4 | Page

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and Risk. Points are then awarded as per criteria of Improved, Enhanced, Superior, Conserving and Restorative.

LEED v4 for Neighborhood Development Plan LEED for Neighborhood Development Plan (LEED ND) is probably the most popular and applied rating system for urban scale interventions. LEED v4 ND consists of five scoring categories – Smart Location & Linkage (SLL); Neighborhood Pattern & Design (NPD); Green Infrastructure & Buildings (GIB); Innovation & Design Process (IN); and Regional Priority (RP) Credits. Having close organizational ties with Congress for the New Urbanism and Urban Land Institute the rating system heavily leans on achieving compact, mixed-use, walkable, and transit-oriented neighborhoods along existing infrastructural centres and corridors.

LEED for Cities Pilot (USGBC, 2017) USGBC’s new pilot programs – LEED for Cities and LEED for Communities are driven by their ambitious vision to achieve a massive market-shift toward a more sustainable urbanism within a generation’s span of time, and across the world. Transportation is one of the five critical areas the program awards credits on. The other four are energy, water, waste, and human experience. LEED for Cities and Communities are designed for large urban agglomerations and small townships respectively.

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LEED for Cities/Communities can be seen unique from other systems in several ways.

First, it offers much more quantitative approach than qualitative in assessing sustainability across a regional entity. Within this system organizations are bound to track and measure their performance on the four main categories and total of fourteen sub-categories, and publicly share results. Second, the system provisions integration with several other programs and systems on a single assessment platform, Arc ("www.arcskoru.com,"), such as WELL, SITES, PEER, grazb; STAR Communities (usgbc.org, 2017); and Envision. One of the other notable features of LEED for Cities and Communities is their heightened emphasis on interconnectedness of organizations and communities and a project strategy that brings everyone on the same page.

A Comparative Study In order to objectively understand and visualize the landscape of Certifications and their relative usability for key sustainable transportation goals and objectives, a tabular study was carried out as presented on the following pages. For the stated purpose, two sets of strategic objectives were picked – one drawn from The Geography of Urban Transportation (Hanson & Giuliano, 2004); and other drawn from Travel by Design (Boarnet & Crane, 2001). These works were selected for their widespread recognition in both the academic and professional practice discourse, as well as to lend the study at least two diverse perspectives on policy approaches.

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The five Certificate systems chosen here were studied for their applicability and degree of influence on the aspects of strategies as recommended in the two referred texts.

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Table: Comparative Study of Certifications by ‘’ The Eight Strategies’’.

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Table: Comparative Study of Certifications by ‘’Travel By Design’’ Policy Recommendations.

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On Performance and Geographic Scope ‘’The Eight Strategies’’, The Geography of Urban Transportation 1. STAR Communities: This rating system is able to deliver direct influence on transportation policy framework and outcomes through its category of Transportation Choices. The system primarily supports policy for multiple modes and affordable accessibility.

2. Envision: Best strengths of this rating system lie in its categories of Quality of Life and Leadership in context of transportation infrastructural construction projects. While all scoring categories are offered as optional, they are capable of delivering holistic solutions to transportation issues, including a set u for wellguided leadership and management.

3. Parksmart: Scope of this rating system is mainly limited to parking structures.

However, within its scope the rating system is capable of delivering great impact, particularly on aspect of pricing strategy for reduced automobile use.

4. LEED ND: LEED for Neighborhood Development mandates or strongly influences improvements in certain areas. For example, Walkable Streets and Compact Development are not only the prerequisites but also get high credit scores if such improvements are incorporated in a development.

5. LEED for Cities Pilot: The certification system offers a strong project management scenario that would ensure indirect influence on most of the policy categories.

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Travel By Design 1. STAR Communities: The system supports a variety of urban design strategic scenarios as well as recommends incentives for government employees to use alternative modes of transport.

2. Envision: Under its Quality of Life category, Envision offers a very flexible scenario for using the urban design strategies for infrastructural projects.

3. Parksmart: With an array of strategies offered under its PROGRAMS category, Parksmart offers incentives in form of reserved parking spaces or discounted rates for car sharing, using alternative fuel vehicles, as well as for biking.

4. LEED ND: The most direct and perhaps most verified influence is exercised by LEED ND in addressing urban design strategies (Reid Ewing, 2013). The fact that LEED ND not only is primarily designed to influence the urban form of neighborhoods, but also offers prerequisites directing location choices (LEED v4 2013) and incorporation of walkable environments lends this certification an organizational authority in some of the more foundational and accessible urban design strategic categories. However, STAR and Envision may offer a much larger spatial scope for intervention as well as a lot more flexibility of interpretation of urban design values.

6. LEED for Cities Pilot: The certification system offers a strong project management scenario that would ensure indirect influence on most of the policy categories.

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On Integration with Local Governance Based on the above presented study and discussion points, the following are offered as some of the key strategic areas wherein Certifications can play leading role toward better implementation of sustainable mobility goals, when closely integrated with local governance and comprehensive planning scenarios: I.

COLLABORATION. One of the prime strengths of Certifications lies in their capability to bridge disciplinary gaps and value conflicts. In multi-actor governance scenarios the Certifications serve as ’’the means to cross boundaries and carry discourses, information, and priorities across different divides of agency, language, power, and perspective’’ (Holden, 2013). LEED for Cities and Communities in particular may offer a powerful tool for local governments. If fully integrated, it will demand breaking away conventional disciplinary silos and making of new outcome-oriented interdisciplinary teams. The system offers a more objectified and tangible approach to holistic sustainability which is presently at best a mushy incomprehensible concept for many.

In context of freight transport systems, it is noted that there is ‘’need to make freight transport policies sensitive to wider logistical and supply chain trends.’’, and that ‘’The goals of logistics sustainability are sometimes in conflict with other government policy objectives. For example, efforts to promote industrial development or social cohesion’’ (McKinnon, Browne, Whiteing, & Piecyk, 2015).

These problems can be more effectively solved by integrating the objectivity of 13 | Page

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certifications with community-based planning process. Planning rail transit projects using such programs can ensure better project planning, evaluation by experts, and a potent tool to buy in public and stakeholder interest. It minimizes scepticism for well-planned projects, and keeps a check on the bad ones.

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STEWARDSHIP AND MARKETING. By using one or more of these Certificates, a community can keep track of how well it is performing in achieving its sustainable transportation as well as overall sustainability goals. A system of self and peer assessment is likely to foster stewardship amongst stakeholders and governments. Sharing of such information would bring in healthy competition and cooperation spirit between agencies and communities. Stakeholders also earn identification and are more likely to work responsibly toward a measurable and marketable achievement. Systems like LEED for Communities can help small declining communities in re-discovering their unique selling points and economic value and publicize them with greater confidence level. Within such scenarios transportation policies will too be able to respond better to specific contextual strengths.

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COST OF THE AUTOMOBILE: With full integration of the certifications in the planning process, automobile travel will be more dis-incentivized. Given the consistently high emphasis on public transit travel and walking and biking in all certifications, as well as the need to invest in more non-conventional aspects of sustainability will help bringing the true cost of the automobile to the fore of a new economy.

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SUBURBAN RETROFITS. Acknowledging that ‘’most of the environment of 2030 is already here.’’ (Hanson & Giuliano, 2004) and yet great amount of land use adaptation is needed over next many decades, a practical transportation policy framework needs to be working in a flexible land development scenario, and particularly in context of re-inventing America’s automobile suburbs and exurbs (Tachieva). Toward this end, local governments need alternative sustainable development scenarios including non-transportation dominated sustainability scenarios (Crane, 1996). The array of policy suit choices offered by the Certifications, yet within an industry-tested holistic sustainability framework, can allow for more responsive interventions, more appealing to private investors.

For instance, transportation policies in some suburbs might need to be automobile-oriented because of low transit ridership in rural areas, but could enable a Rideshare program tied with multi-family housings supported by greener taxi fleet.

V.

URBAN DESIGN. Many urban architects, planners, and more recently even transportation engineers are increasingly realizing the significant role that urban design plays in achieving sustainable mobility and liability objectives. Progressive policy suits, often in form of form-based-codes are making way in professional planning. But urban design often is at best limited in application to only neighborhood designs, and more frequently in specific district typologies like the Transit-Oriented-Development and Planned Unit Developments. Urban design and master planning as plan implementation tool, given its essentially physical

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intervention attribute, demands as highly integrated planning scenarios as possible. In order for urban design to be effectively employed in complex transportation project scenarios, such as a greener freight mobility corridor, it is vital to have all stakeholders on the same page and coming up with a sharp master planning project brief. Facilitated with a system like Envision, interweaved with the comprehensive public planning process, many sustainable transportation goals can be nearer to implementation.

Conclusion The rating systems and their several scoring criteria are not novel to the planning industry. Many of these are frequently incorporated as part of comprehensive planning goals, objectives, and policies. The unique value that these programs offer is in their approach to sustainability management and their supporting role in the conventional planning process. They essential offer a ready-made well-researched framework for good planning for designers. So we can avoid reinventing the wheel unnecessarily. This will allow planners and designers to focus on other implementations aspects of the project. They provision a check-list that would push organizations to do more and touch on the aspects that are often missed, neglected in conventional planning scenario – particularly social sustainability.

More sensitive topics concerning transportation policy implementation get an objective, matter-of-science like representation in these programs that can help overcoming 16 | Page

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political/cultural barriers. Aspects like caring for biodiversity and innovate to minimize road kills in a highway building project can be better addressed as part of a truly holistic and multi-player approach to sustainable planning. Certification can also help putting right kind of leadership in right place.

In particular, LEED for Cities offers a compelling and innovative planning scenario for accelerating implementation for sustainable outcomes, including the transportation outcomes. Public sharing of performance data in a widely comprehensible way will ensure more transparency, enable public judgement and informed decision making.

Being able to identify peer communities more easily will enable faster knowledge and skill transfer and inter-regional partnerships. Fore-mostly, with a highly data-driven performance assessment approach, cost and benefit analysis in context of specific transportation network typologies would be more measurable and more convincing to both citizens and grant-awarding agencies.

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References 1. Boarnet, M. G., & Crane, R. (2001). Travel by design : the influence of urban form on travel.

Marlon G. Boarnet, Randall Crane: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2001.

2. Crane, R. (1996). Cars and drivers in the new suburbs: Linking access to travel in neotraditional planning. Journal of the American Planning Association, 62(1), 51-65. doi:10.1080/01944369608975670 3. Hanson, S., & Giuliano, G. (2004). The geography of urban transportation. 3rd ed. edited by Susan Hanson, Genevieve Giuliano: New York : Guilford Press, [2004] 4. 3rd ed.

5. Holden, M. (2013). Sustainability indicator systems within urban governance: Usability 6. analysis of sustainability indicator systems as boundary objects. Ecological Indicators, 89–96.

7. Location & Transportation and Sustainable Sites. (2013). Retrieved from https://www.usgbc.org/education/sessions/leed-v4-rating-system-review-om/overviewlocation-transportation-and-sustainable8. McKinnon, A., Browne, M., Whiteing, A., & Piecyk, M. (2015). Green Logistics : Improving the Environmental Sustainability of Logistics Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/tamucs/detail.action?docID=1931712 9. Reid Ewing, M. J. G., Ming Zhang, Meghan Bogaerts, and William Greene. (2013). Predicting Transportation 10. Outcomes for LEED Projects. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 265–279.

11. Tachieva, G. Sprawl Repair Manual. 60.

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12. USGBC. (2017). LEED for Cities Pilot Performance Score to LEED Certification.

13. usgbc.org. (2017, Novemner 17, 2017). USGBC newsroom. Retrieved from http://newsroom.usgbc.org/green-business-certification-inc-partners-with-star-communities-tohelp-cities-communities-reach-sustainability-goals/ 14. www.arcskoru.com. Retrieved from http://arcskoru.com/

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