The Dave and Dan Civil 3D Show
Dan Philbrick and Dave Simeone add their colorful and insightful views, opinions, and expertise on Autodesk Civil 3D and the civil engineering marketplace.
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- posted 04/18/07 by Dave Simeone Green Design for Civil?
- For a while, I’ve been reading about the impact of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building rating system and its impact on the architectural world. It’s pretty clear – reduce the amount of energy used in a building for lighting, heating/cooling, water/wastewater, etc so you can reduce the building’s impact on the environment (while also saving money in long term building operation).
Even though I come from the Civil world, I understand that buildings are fairly important parts of most projects. Yes, there are times where they clutter up a beautiful land development project, but I guess people need places to work, shop, sleep, eat, buy rough-sawn lumber, etc.
Anyway… how does this whole LEED thing impact the professionals who are designing the subdivisions, sites, transportation, and water retention systems, etc?
LEED for Neighborhood Development
This new initiative (looks like it’s just started up) is an attempt to define a rating system similar to the LEED Green Building rating system that is in place now (aka, LEED Certified building). From what I can tell, the goal is to have a similar rating system for how a neighborhood is configured by 2009.
There is a preliminary (“Pilot”) for the LEED-ND rating system on the LEED website that’ll give you a pretty good understanding of the effort.
Actions:
If you aren’t aware of this initiative, seems like it’ll be something you’ll want to begin tracking. I wouldn’t be surprised if real estate developers begin asking you to create LEED-ND submittals as part of your scope of work at some point in the future. The U.S. Building Council website is the place to go for information on all of this.
If you are actively tracking this initiative, I’d love to know a bit more about how you feel it’ll impact your business (for better or worse). Post info here on the blog if it’s something that will benefit everyone else.
Thanks
Dave S
