Piraeus Port Plaza 1 | LEED Gold | Photo: Sandra Baer
Promoting resilient buildings and communities
USGBC is working to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built, and operated to encourage green building practices—and resilience is a clear extension of this work. We know that more sustainable buildings are the cornerstone to enhancing community resilience. The challenge, of course, is to do much more, which is manifested in our advocacy activities at all levels of government.
Green strategies support community resilience
Green buildings are driving resilience-enhancing designs, technologies, materials, and methods. To support these efforts, green buildings often include practices such as the use of durable materials, thoughtful site selection, rainwater collection, demand response, grid , maximal energy efficiency, on-site renewable energy generation and more.
What is resilience? USGBC and our partners have defined resilience as the “ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to adverse events.” Through our work, USGBC finds that
Design Planning
Proactive design planning and construction for potential impacts of reasonably expected natural disasters with minimal damage.
Healthy Site
Creation and execution of a site development plan that promotes healthy vegetation, soils, and aquatic ecosystems to provide ecosystem services such as flood control.
Maintaining Project Site
Design, building, and maintaining of the project site and adjacent landscapes to reduce risk of wildfire.
Catastrophic Event
Support for community recovery during catastrophic events and extended bulk power grid outages by enabling
Rating system tools
Through LEED and other programs and initiatives, USGBC promotes and advocates for of design, construction, operation, and maintenance that address and emphasize resilience in buildings, landscapes, power systems, and communities. Beyond sustainability, green building and infrastructure certifications are driving resilience-enhancing designs, technologies, materials, and methods.
LEED
LEED is the gold standard for how buildings and communities are designed, constructed, maintained, and operated. LEED promotes resilience in each of these areas as well via the LEED Climate Resilience Screening Tool, which evaluates the resilience potential of each LEED credit. For examples of LEED-certified projects that have exhibited exemplary resilience, see our Profiles in Resilience brief.
LEED for Cities
LEED for Cities is a pilot certification program that supports progress towards better, more resilient cities. Available through the Arc performance platform, LEED for Cities provides cities with solutions for measuring and managing energy and water use, human experience, waste production, and transportation usage on a city scale.
SITES
SITES is the sustainable land development and management program that aims, in part, to “create regenerative systems and foster resiliency.” SITES provides a green infrastructure framework for landscapes of virtually any type. Because SITES was modeled after LEED, the system optimizes resilience efforts by enabling some projects to concurrently pursue both certifications.
PEER
PEER is the certification program that measures power system performance and electricity infrastructure, while also working to improve the sustainability, reliability, and resilience of these systems. PEER includes guidance for cities, utilities, campuses, and transit to help ensure reliable delivery of electricity, reduction of emissions, improved safety and security, and more.