What is LEED?

LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) is the most popular eco-friendly building standard in the world. With more than 197,000 projects globally, influence in 186 countries, and certifications for entities as large as cities, Lancaster manages to stand out among LEED-certified bodies.

Photo by Jack Reilly

LEED Is a program designed to help communities maintain higher standards in health, energy efficiency, and safe infrastructure. Some of the metrics used are energy, water, transportation, education, health, safety, prosperity, and equitability. The performance of a city is then tracked through Arc which is a program that tracks progress and produces a quality score.

How does Lancaster Qualify?

Lancaster specifically excels in 5 of the 14 measured categories: water, energy, waste, transportation, and human experience. In particular, Lancaster further excels in energy due to its small size and transport due to access to transit options such as Amtrak.

Lancaster was the first city in Pennsylvania to receive a LEED Certification on July 18th, 2018, Achieving a Gold certification. Nationwide Lancaster was among the first cities to be LEED certified in America. In 2017 Lancaster joined more than 300 cities in the MNCAA (Mayors National Climate Action Agenda) which committed Lancaster to keeping a greenhouse gas inventory, placing a LEED certification in its near future.

LEED’s city program ultimately compares cities across the U.S. and the globe as a whole. Among a global community, Lancaster performs rather well. As of 2018, the city was reporting 10.8 miles traveled by personal vehicle per person which is safely below the global average of 37.89 miles per person in the same year. The city also had an impressive 7.24 tons of carbon dioxide per person compared to the global 16.5 tons per person.

Lancaster seems to plan on continuing this trend of efficiency with their climate action change, which plans to cut their carbon emissions by almost 81.25% by 2035. They plan to accomplish this by increasing the efficiency of water treatment, wastewater treatment, and green energy, and an increase in public transportation.

By achieving a gold certification Lancaster has already been recognized for their energy efficiency, however, this also tasks the city with continuing progress and tracking metrics so that LEED can use the data for environmental change globally and also prompts the city to continue improving in pursuit of a platinum certification.

Lancaster is also recognized for its healthy and sustainable population growth. Lancaster grew at a rate of roughly 14 percent between the years 2000 and 2015 compared to an average of 5 percent growth across the rest of Pennsylvania.

The county has also seen an increase in green energy as wind turbines have been placed near Susquehanna. There has also been an increased initiative to make solar energy much more accessible leading to carbon-neutral buildings such as Millersville’s Lombardo Welcome Center. The county also has multiple hydroelectric plants further securing energy as its strongest point for LEED

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Photo by Jack Reilly

Related stories

Robert Fedrizzi

Robert Fedrizzi co-founded the USGBC with David Gottfried and Mike Italiano in 1993. The group assembled several non-profits and 60 firms to enforce sustainable building. This eventually led to LEED in the year 2000. Fedrizzi became CEO of this organization in 2004 and has since stepped down in 2016. After USGBC Fedrizzi Moved on to become CEO of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBA). The IWBA, similar to USGBC, strives to lead the world toward green and community-focused infrastructure. The IWBA’s Building standard has become an unofficial standard in global real estate, focusing almost exclusively on the health, well-being, and community of the people who occupy it.

David Gottfried

David Gottfried is a real estate developer and a green building activist. He is a co-founder of the USGBC along with Robert Fedrizzi and Micheal Italiano. In order to promote sustainable practices they went on to create the LEED certification. LEED has gone on to have more than 197,000 LEED projects in 186 countries covering 29 Billion square feet as of this year.

Lombardo welcome center

Millersville’s Lombardo Welcome Center is Millersville University’s first go at a zero-energy building. The project takes up around 14,000 square feet and is entirely powered by solar panels directly outside. The building uses roughly 116,000 Kilowatt hours (kWh) and produces 205,000 kWh resulting in its net energy use being negative 89,000 kWh. The project, while not representing the entire campus, is meant to represent Millersville’s commitment to a green future. Millersville hopes to be entirely carbon neutral by the year 2040 citing that 70 percent of Millersville’s greenhouse gas output comes from inefficient energy.

Photo by Jack Reilly

Philadelphia LEED

Philadelphia has achieved the highest level of LEED certification, LEED Platinum. Earning 92 of 110 possible points The city excels in flood resilience, environmental risk, transit infrastructure, water management, energy efficiency, and renewable energy, and the city is on track for carbon neutrality by 2050.

Extra resources

References

Cityoflancasterpa, www.cityoflancasterpa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/dummy-1.pdf. Accessed 9 Dec. 2024.

Municipal Climate Action Plan, www.cityoflancasterpa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/City-of-Lancasters-Municipal-Operations-Climate-Action-Plan-hi-res.pdf. Accessed 9 Dec. 2024.

Frank, Thomas. “‘green’ Growth Fuels an Entire Industry.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 14 Nov. 2012, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/25/green-building-big-business-leed-certification/1655367/. 

Nieves, Ariana. “Looking Back: LEED History.” Sustainable Investment Group, 21 Dec. 2021, sigearth.com/leed-history/. 

rmoriarty@syracuse.com, Rick Moriarty |. “U.S. Green Building Council, Founded by Syracuse’s Rick Fedrizzi, Receives UN’s Top Environmental Award.” Syracuse, 21 Nov. 2014, www.syracuse.com/news/2014/11/us_green_building_council_founded_by_syracuses_rick_fedrizzi_receives_uns_top_en.html. 

“Zero Energy Lombardo Welcome Center.” Living Future, living-future.org/case-studies/zero-energy-lombardo-welcome-cente/. Accessed 9 Dec. 2024.