New Urbanist Blacksburg
by Max Rooke & Lonnie Hamilton III
LEED Certification for Town Properties
Priority: Low | Cost: High | Implementation: Long
Residential greenhouse gas emissions represent a third of Blacksburg’s total emissions (Blacksburg Climate Action Plan, 2016). This primarily comes from energy consumption - the energy that households use to heat their water and their homes is often derived from fossil-fuels. Additionally, many older homes are not built to modern energy efficiency standards, meaning that more potentially ‘dirty’ energy is consumed than necessary.
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This is also true of town-owned facilities ranging from schools to town hall. Therefore a stated goal of the Blacksburg Climate Action Plan was to actively pursue LEED certification for public buildings as a way to set the standard and lead the way for the town at large. LEED certification is a standard of sustainability and energy efficiency created by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). This standard demonstrates that a building was constructed with sustainable materials and is energy efficient. The benefit of LEED-certified buildings include:
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Less energy use
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Less water use
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Reduced maintenance costs
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Improved indoor air quality
Source: Virginia Tech
Source: Virginia Tech
Green New Deal funding would be used to renovate existing town facilities to meet some level of LEED-certification. This would save the town money and reduce its carbon footprint. Importantly, it demonstrates a town commitment to sustainability and ought to be used to inspire private property-owners to do the same.
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Additional Green New Deal funding could be used to subsidize renovations to existing private structures in town to bring them to some level of LEED-certification - which level depends on the amount of funding available. This would be applicable to both commercial and residential structures, with residential structure renovation helping to serve the goals and intentions of rethinking the single-family home. This would further reduce town greenhouse gas emissions and overall energy use.