CHICAGO, IL - The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and Bank of America announced the ten recipients of the Affordable Green Neighborhoods Grant Program. Funded by a $500,000 grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, the program awards financial and educational resources to help neighborhood projects that have affordable green housing components in their plans, pursue LEED for Neighborhood Development. LEED for Neighborhood Development is a green rating system from USGBC that certifies whole neighborhoods, portions of neighborhoods or multiple neighborhoods. The selected development projects were announced at the Affordable Housing Summit at USGBC's Greenbuild International Conference & Expo.
"Through the very generous support of the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, ten communities across the country will see the transformation of vacant or underutilized land in thriving existing neighborhoods into walkable, compact developments," said Roger Platt, senior vice president, Global Policy and Law, USGBC. "The recipients have demonstrated a commitment toward strengthening their communities by providing healthy, affordable green housing to citizens with a range of income levels."
"Supporting environmentally healthy communities is one way Bank of America is helping set opportunity in motion to revitalize local economies and neighborhoods," said Alex Liftman, Global Environmental executive, Bank of America. "We congratulate all of the Affordable Green Neighborhoods awardees for their outstanding projects, and hope that by offsetting the cost of LEED for Neighborhood Development training and certification, we can help advance a shift to greener, healthier, more affordable housing, and sustainable community planning."
The Affordable Green Neighborhoods Grant recipients include:
9th and Berks TOD, Philadelphia, Pa.
Church Lane Gardens, St. Louis, Mo.
Clackamas Heights Redevelopment, Oregon City, Ore.
Jordan Downs, Los Angeles, Calif.
Lamar Station TOD, Lakewood, Colo.
Old Colony Redevelopment, Boston, Mass.
Sunnydale Hope SF, San Francisco, Calif.
The Village at Market Creek, San Diego, Calif.
Veterans Place at The Lancaster Corridor, Dallas, Texas
Wyandanch Rising, Wyandanch, N.Y.
"The Affordable Green Neighborhoods grant will provide the financial support to successfully complete the Clackamas Heights Redevelopment in a highly green and sustainable manner," said grant recipient Mary Bradshaw, development project manager for the Clackamas Heights Redevelopment Housing Authority of Clackamas County (HACC). "HACC recognizes the importance of third-party certification through the LEED for Neighborhood Development program as integral to our future success."
The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that over 6.5 million low-income families spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing and utility costs. Greening affordable housing reduces energy and resource use, resulting in lower operating costs and utility bills for tenants and their families.
USGBC's LEED for Neighborhood Development integrates the principles of smart growth, new urbanism and green building and benefits communities by reducing urban sprawl, increasing transportation choice and decreasing automobile dependence, encouraging healthy living, and protecting threatened species.
The Affordable Green Neighborhoods Grant Program selection committee consisted of the following affordable housing and smart growth experts:
Dana Bourland, Enterprise Community Partners
Carlton Brown, Full Spectrum NY
Anita Hairston, PolicyLink
David Leopold, Bank of America
Casius Pealer, Builders of Hope
Benjamin de la Peña, The Rockefeller Foundation
Tim Torma, Office of Sustainable Communities, U.S. EPA
The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council is committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings.
With a community comprising 80 local affiliates, 18,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 155,000 LEED Professional Credential holders, USGBC is the driving force of an industry that is projected to contribute $554 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product from 2009-2013. USGBC leads an unlikely diverse constituency of builders and environmentalists, corporations and nonprofit organizations, elected officials and concerned citizens, and teachers and students.
Buildings in the United States are responsible for 39% of CO2 emissions, 40% of energy consumption, 13% water consumption and 15% of GDP per year, making green building a source of significant economic and environmental opportunity. Greater building efficiency can meet 85% of future U.S. demand for energy, and a national commitment to green building has the potential to generate 2.5 million American jobs.
Source: U.S. Green Building Council