I too have been part of the LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) process since early on. My LEED-ND member circle here in Grand Rapids is doing a conceptual pilot project to see if we can retrofit a pretty sustainable neighborhood to be LEED-ND -- so far it's working, and may become an actual project, I hope (and I also believe there's a potential real LEED-ND development going on in G.R.). I got involved because of the urban agriculture angle myself. However, one problem is that there's currently only one point given for having a food garden - which seems too little for me. I know a couple folks on the LEED-ND development advisory committee advocated for more. But here's what I've considered: there are apparently a set of point-getting criteria that can be customized for the specific geographic region -- not sure how much thought has been given to how that will play out, I intend to try and figure that out soon. So my thought is, why not advocate for even more points to be given for urban ag or community gardens at that point? It would incentivize including them if developers want to add on points to be sure they get LEED-ND certification.
Anyway, that's probably pretty technical for most on this list, but for those it's not, I wanted to post that idea. Cynthia Price Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council Co-chair (with the subject-captioned Betsy Johnson), Urban Agriculture Committee, Community Food Scurity Council On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 10:27 AM, Karen Jones <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Everyone, In late Feb. of this year, a message from Betsy Johnson came > on the list serve saying : Heads up, this is coming your way, and it is good > for community gardens and she included a link to LEED for Neighbourhood > Development. I followed the link and agreed with Betsy. This is good for > Community Gardens. I decided I had to become LEED Accredited Professional to > help out the Sherbrook Street Community Garden, which is a truly sustainable > garden which is slated for development and not of the garden kind! But when > I got to the seminars to prepare to write the exam, I was totally at sea,I > said 'what is HVAC'? > But I passed the exam and am now LEED AP. Now I can study to write LEED > for Neighbourhoods. I am going to especially look at Strategies for Urban > Infill and Brownfield Development. Hopefully, I will be able to act as a > better resource for saving the garden. > So, Betsy, thanks for this advice. And keep on giving it. Some people do > take it and LEED is a great tool for the work we are involved in. I would > prefer a spade, and I was pretty upset 8 years when I had to put down my > spade and go and sit at the table of an inner city agency, a development > corporation, who looked to have all the cards and who set the agenda. I'm > not sure they have all the cards now. > I also want to thank Adam Hongiman who was so encouraging when the future > of our garden looked extremely black. Adam, rest in peace, we are still > doing your work here. Karen > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20090621/890c8dc2/attachment.html > > > _______________________________________________ > The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of > ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to > find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org > > To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: > http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20090622/9d0ae50d/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
