ARLINGTON, VA–Arlington County has been named the first Platinum level community under the US Green Building Council's LEED for Communities program. This follows the District's award this past September of the first LEED for Cities Platinum in the world. USGBC expanded the scope of its programs last year with its addition of communities and cities to LEED. These new standards measure sustainability performance across such metrics as energy, water, waste, transportation, and human experience — a category that includes education, prosperity, equity and health and safety.
Arlington's sustainability story began in the 1960s with its Metrorail planning, followed by the Smart Growth strategies outlined in the General Land Use Plan. Then the county launched its Arlington Initiative to Rethink Energy (AIRE) effort in 2007. AIRE set a target to reduce the local government's carbon emissions by 10% by 2012, compared to 2000 levels. It achieved that goal by improving energy efficiency in the county government's buildings, vehicles and infrastructure and through other efforts.
The county's Community Energy Plan (CEP), adopted in 2013, established a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 75% by 2050. Most recently, the county became the first locality in Virginia to approve an ordinance allowing a Commercial-Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program — a public-private partnership to provide affordable, long-term financing for projects to improve the energy or water efficiency of commercial buildings in the county.
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Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
