On the Integration of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)® ND Protocol with the Energy Planning and Management Tools in Italy: Strengths and Weaknesses

Giuliano Dall'O',Annalisa Galante,Nicola Sanna,Karin Miller

doi:10.3390/en6115990

Abstract

Owners and municipalities face the choice to renovate or rebuild buildings in order to improve energy efficiency and sustainability. The process of upgrading the existing building stock can be supported by land management tools, i.e., municipal energy plans (MEP) or sustainable building codes (BC), that municipalities use to plan, check and monitor actions taken. Many local and regional authorities are involved in the Covenant of Mayors supported by the European Union (EU): the sustainable energy action plan (SEAP) is the key document in which the Covenant signatory outlines how it intends to reach CO2 reduction target by 2020. Sustainability at the urban scale is also supported by voluntary certification schemes such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)® for neighbourhood development proposed by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) Communities proposed by UK Building Research Establishment (BRE) and Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE) for Urban Development proposed by the Japan GreenBuild Council. The fact that there are so many tools to manage urban sustainability is positive, but what happens when multiple tools are applied to the same territory? Overlap, redundancy, and conflicts in management may be critical elements. The purpose of this article is to analyze these critical issues, highlighting the elements of integration and possible synergies for effective management of sustainability at the local level.

Highlights

The environmental quality of urban spaces is a necessity and at the same time, a great opportunity.In recent decades, the state of the environment has become a dominant theme, and many nations have signed international commitments to reducing green house gas (GHG) emissions, starting with theKyoto Protocol [1]
The major causes of environmental impacts in urban areas can be linked to local traffic patterns and building energy consumption related to heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, domestic hot water (DHW) systems and electrical purposes
Local governments can prepare themselves for the implementation of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)® ND developments and shape the future growth of a city by considering a number of aspects related to the program [28]

Summary

Introduction

The environmental quality of urban spaces is a necessity and at the same time, a great opportunity.In recent decades, the state of the environment has become a dominant theme, and many nations have signed international commitments to reducing green house gas (GHG) emissions, starting with theKyoto Protocol [1]. The environmental quality of urban spaces is a necessity and at the same time, a great opportunity. Human-induced environmental change is a global issue and a local issue; environmental problems become more critical in cities, as those spaces hold the greatest concentration of population. The latest edition of Demographia World Urban Areas [2] estimated that urban areas account for approximately 48% of the world’s population. As in the U.S, population density in city cores are decreasing [3], but the higher concentration of population in suburban areas brings about its own set of issues. The major causes of environmental impacts in urban areas can be linked to local traffic patterns (especially private transport) and building energy consumption related to heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, domestic hot water (DHW) systems and electrical purposes

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