LEED Location and Transportation: Sustainable Buildings and Wellness Design Consultants

Globally, transportation accounts for 25% of total greenhouse gas emissions, making it an essential sector in which to implement reductions. LEED certification, particularly the Location and Transportation category, provides a comprehensive approach to sustainable building design and operation, encouraging environmentally responsible practices and promoting healthier, more efficient buildings. As green building consultants, a number of strategies are available in this regard, all part of a sustainable real estate development or sustainable refurbishment project.

Early decisions such as the site selection and location, or implementing a local procurement strategy will have tangible emission impacts from Day One in a sustainable real estate development, as will integrating Active Travel facilities, providing green parking facilities and tracking commuter emissions in the operational phase.

As sustainable building consultants, below we address each of these points in turn in order to provide the reader with a concise overview of the role transportation plays in the green building sector.

Choosing a Sustainable Building Location with Sensitive Land Protection

Sustainable site selection is arguably the most important decision in relation to transportation emission reductions and indeed opportunities for active travel. It also involves protecting sensitive areas such as endangered species habitats.

Although this choice is often made very early in the real estate development process, whenever possible, consideration for transportation and connectivity should at least play a part in that decision making process from a sustainable building perspective. Additionally, avoiding development on prime farmland is crucial for preserving valuable agricultural resources. Selecting a high priority site can bring both economic and environmental benefits to the surrounding community.

As outlined in the USGBC’s LEED standard / Location & Transportation category, there are several characteristics to be considered. Reusing existing infrastructure is crucial in sustainable site selection as it minimizes the need for new infrastructure and reduces environmental strain.

Primarily, consider the surrounding density and prioritise locations with diverse uses nearby, such as food retail, community centers, and other services. Building on previously developed land can offer benefits like existing infrastructure and points within the LEED criteria.

This allows people spending time in the building to have access to a variety of services nearby, within walking distance to encourage active travel instead of car use, while reducing the need for longer distance car travel.

Secondly, ‘access to quality transit’ - locating the project in a high-density area, close to multi-modal transportation options such as train, bus and bike share stations. making commuter times shorter on average, and commonly increasing public transportation uptake.

Local Sourcing & Procurement in Sustainable Buildings

Another strategy that comes early in the design process is selecting healthy building materials, products, and or machinery from local, nearby sources. Promoting more compact development can conserve land and reduce transportation emissions.

From a real estate sustainability perspective, the key is to understand the supply chain transparency of the most prominent selected materials (such as steel and concrete for buildings; or flooring, ceiling panels and wall finishes in interiors), utilize low-emission vehicles in the delivery process, and plan timely construction deliveries.

Local sourcing greatly reduces transportation emissions and should be considered early on in materiality sourcing and procurement decisions.

Healthy and sustainable building materials should therefore be selected based on those within a low-carbon system and within a close radius of the project.

Low-carbon systems can include the whole life cycle of a material and all transportation steps— as well as the incorporation of low-carbon shipping options.

In addition, within the construction phase, the just-in-time delivery method can be used, meaning the materials arrive on site when needed, not before - this helps avoid the loss or damage of resources.

A reduction in excess material use and therefore less waste production, in turn reduces the number of transportation trips needed to get materials on and off site.

Commuter Emission Regulation in sustainable buildings

During the in-use phase of a sustainable building, commuter emissions are the largest contributor to building-related transportation emissions. Choosing a neighborhood development location can significantly reduce these emissions by promoting walkability and access to public transit. The main goal is to reduce the number of people traveling to and from the building individually in petrol / diesel powered vehicles.

This can be done through the use of public transport, carpooling, or the use of electric vehicles. Promoting walkability and transport efficiency within the surrounding community is also crucial. In order to regulate and eventually reduce commuter emissions, strategies such as commuter surveys and greenhouse gas tracking are essential steps.

Commuter surveys can be implemented to better understand how employees, residents, or other building users travel to and from the site. This is the first step to understanding the impact of transportation emissions and what the largest decision-making factors are for commuter travel.

This information on transportation related greenhouse gas emissions can not only provide valuable data for real estate ESG reporting but also help guide future building site adjustments to reduce transport emissions, such as parking changes or active travel incentives.

Active Travel and Bicycle Network in Sustainable Buildings

From the transportation side of active travel, it is directly connected to the location of the building site and its connectivity, as well as business culture. The sustainable sites category in LEED encourages such practices to promote environmental and public health benefits. Neighborhood development can promote walkability and sustainable land use practices. The general goal of active travel is to increase the health and fitness level of building occupants, but it can also have impacts on transportation emissions.

If the building is located nearby various amenities, commuters and building occupants can walk or bike if they would like to go to the grocery store or get a haircut, for example. This not only increases occupant health, but also reduces transportation related carbon emissions.

In addition, active travel can be fulfilled through commuting to the site by bike or foot. In addition to location, building sites can encourage active travel through the incorporation of bike storage facilities, bike maintenance programs, and showers on-site for commuters heading to work.

Finally, company or building-wide active travel incentives, such a company-wide bike to work month competition can increase active travel participation. The culture of a company can have a large impact on commuter patterns, and active travel should be encouraged socially whenever possible.

The USGBC LEED green building standard ‘Bicycle Facilities’ credit rewards projects that promote bicycle use through locating the site entrance within 180m of a bicycle network, as well as providing short- / long-term bicycle storage and shower rooms on site.

Reduced Parking Footprint in Sustainable Buildings

To help reduce commuter-related transportation emissions, parking can be adjusted on site. Sensitive land protection is crucial in responsible land use practices, ensuring the preservation of biodiversity and ecological sites. Strategies can include limits on available parking, designated preferred parking spaces, and EV or alternative fueling stations installed on site.

Limiting parking overall will encourage different travel methods purely due to the inconvenience. In addition, parking that is available should contain designated spots for carpooling and green vehicles to further encourage reductions in commuter emissions.

In addition, parking lots should include EV charging stations to make the use of these vehicles more accessible. Also, when possible, alternative gas fueling stations can be installed on site to further discourage traditional, emission-heavy travel methods.

The Reduced Parking Footprint credit in USGBC LEED’s green building standard rewards real estate projects that deliberately limit their parking footprint, or eliminate it completely, to promote alternative transportation options. This integrates with the Electric Vehicle credit that rewards parking for EVs with dedicated charging stations.

What is active travel as a healthy building strategy?

Image courtesy of Active Score case study / Castlemead

Healthy buildings and active travel

The active travel concept is now well established within the healthy buildings movement. Essentially it’s about supporting micro-mobility, and the facilities that such forms of transport to and from a building require from a landlord or developer.

Micro-mobility includes jogging, cycling (be it on a standard, folding, or baby carrier bike) and e-scooters.

Supporting this active travel concept as a sustainability minded real estate developer equates to increasing the quality and range of on-site facilities available for active commuters as a way to encourage them away from private vehicle use or public transport.

All of this feeds neatly into additional green building and healthy building certifications but may require additional expertise beyond that offered by an architectural studio in order to truly future-proof a building in anticipation of further growth in active commuting - that is where ActiveScore and their community of ActiveScore Accredited Professionals can help.

See our 9-point guide to healthy buildings here.

how does active travel relate to real estate ‘esg’?

Environmental, Social & Governance strategies for a real estate asset are now a fundamental part of any forward thinking developer’s plans. By promoting active travel to/from a building, there are tangible reductions in CO2 emissions as less people rely on their own vehicles or public transport to travel to and from work.

By taking action to deliberately foster a community of active commuters, opportunities are created for social bonding and interaction, especially important in an era when working from home has become a viable alternative option to office life.

The health and wellbeing benefits, both physical and mental, are obvious - getting to work on foot, by bike or even on an e-scooter is simply a more positive experience in many ways than taking a busy tube or bus, even sitting in rush hour traffic.

Finally, the Governance piece involves a landlord / building management team taking responsibility for communicating the services and facilities they have available to all occupants, both new and existing, by leveraging a smart building app for example.

What is Active Score for Active Travel?

Based on the principle that a building’s health and wellbeing facilities are a strong driver of desirability for a potential tenant, and their workforce, the Active Score Certification offers a set of standards that help landlords, leasing agents and indeed prospective tenants know what a specific building offers by way of active travel facilities.

The certification is broken down by 70% infrastructure, 20% occupier engagement services and 10% future proofing. Benchmarks are taken against the WELL Building Standard, BREEAM and a local borough’s planning guidance.

In the first instance, a lack of basic facilities such as showers, parking and lockers can prevent cyclists, runners or those with an e-scooter from making their own way to work, thereby placing extra pressure on the roads, specifically in the form of public transport and car usage.

The impact of Covid has in fact meant a boom in the use of such micro-mobility options, so this is a particularly interesting time for commercial real estate developers to be dialling up on their active travel facilities in an office or mixed-use building, for example.

Occupier engagement services meanwhile can include bike repair on-site, cycle training, creating a cycling club and so on.

What is Active Travel Score?

Active Travel Score was set up by James Nash in the UK, we interviewed him for our Green & Healthy Places podcast here. He’s a serial entrepreneur in the cycling sector and the man driving the company today. A number of different ‘scores’ are on offer, from the basic 'Certified to Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum 100.

In 2021 they certified 85 buildings in eight countries. Amongst them was 100 Bishopsgate, a 181m high building in central London developed by Brookfield Properties. It received a perfect Platinum 100 score thanks to its dedicated Active Commuter Park (ACP) and extensive occupant facilities making it arguably THE reference point for healthy buildings and active travel in the UK today.

Adopting ActiveScore equates to engaging with them in one of three ways. Firstly, a basic level building certification for a minimum period of two years. This includes recommendations on how to improve the assets’ overall active travel friendliness, including infrastructure and soft measures, to ultimately make it a more healthy building

A second option includes all of the above with the addition of a consultation with an ActiveScore surveyor - including advice on the building’s existing plans and product specification.

Finally, the team can take a more proactive, design-lead approach by providing detailed drawings of active travel facilities, active travel product specification and advice on look and feel of the active travel area. In other words, they do the leg work for you, whilst also ensuring the building is maximized for wellbeing credits in WELL, BREEAM, etc. in the relevant active travel credit categories.

What is an ActiveScore Accredited Professional?

We recently completed the process of becoming an ActiveScore Accredited Professional and found it to build very much on such green building and healthy building certification standards as WELL and FITWEL, as well as LEED and BREEAM, so having prior knowledge of some or all of these is a considerable advantage. You will hit the ground running in other words, rather than coming at this subject completely fresh.

As an ActiveScore AP one is responsible for marking a project for its active mobility credentials, topics include the number and variety of bike and e-scooter parking spaces, security measures in place to protect them, the extent of the shower facilities and related services, community building efforts around active commuting amongst building occupants, the look and feel of such parking areas as well as their location, ease of access, and so on.