Since its inception in 1998, LEED certification has become the standard in environmentally-friendly architectural design. Buildings are awarded points for having green features, and the more points they accrue the higher LEED certification they get. It’s a good system, and in 10 years it has become a pretty big deal.

But if LEED is a good system, it’s not a perfect one. There are a few points available for buildings that locate in an urban setting, but for the most part LEED focuses on things like low-energy light bulbs, water use reductions, reduced heat islands, etc. And as BeyondDC has said in the past, LEED architecture without good urban design is like cutting down the rainforest using hybrid-powered bulldozers – it just sort of misses the point. The good news is that, as GGW points out, the folks at LEED are working on a Neighborhood Development rating system that will be for large-scale developments what regular LEED is for individual buildings. Soon, subdivision developers will be able to apply for LEED ratings, and they’ll only get certification if their projects meet minimum standards of good urbanism.

LEED-ND, as the Neighborhood Development system is being called, is a fabulous step forward, but it begs the question of why so many developers build projects with bad urbanism to begin with. The answer in many cases is that they’re required to do so due to the zoning regulations of the jurisdiction in which their project is located. Take a look at just about any zoning code in America and you will find a mountain of regulations literally outlawing good urbanism, from the obvious (like setback and parking requirements) to the obscure (like a common requirement that townhouse developments can only have rows of up to 4 or 5 attached houses). So if there’s a problem with the zoning in many American communities, LEED should look into adopting a certification program specifically for zoning. We should be rewarding communities with green ordinances and chastising those with environmentally damaging ones.

Laurence Aurbach of PedShed.net points us to the STAR Community Index, a program currently being set up that’s scheduled to launch in 2010. STAR will offer certification to communities with green programs, presumably including (but not limited to) their zoning ordinances. It sounds like a great initiative, and with any luck it will do for zoning what LEED has done for architecture. One of the biggest problems sustainability faces in this country is that there are so many good-intentioned environmentalists out there who oppose urban densities on the grounds that parks are always better than buildings, but who ultimately hurt the environment by causing more sprawl. LEED-ND and STAR will go a long way in getting the message out that urbanism is good for the environment.