City of Philadelphia | LEED Platinum | Photo: Adobe Stock
LEED for Cities offers local governments a clear roadmap for achieving sustainability, providing a comprehensive framework for managing community-wide sustainability efforts. It includes social, economic, and environmental performance indicators, along with standards and strategies that allow for effective benchmarking and communication of progress. Additionally, third-party certification verifies the results, ensuring accountability and credibility.
LEED for Cities applies specifically to places with a governing body, such as cities, towns, counties, and other local government jurisdictions.
- Initiation: Certification is typically initiated by the governing body itself.
- Focus: The entire area within the jurisdictional boundary is the scope of the certification.
Set goals, measure progress, and improve your community
Local government leaders are encouraged to use LEED for Cities to guide plan and policy development, track progress on global goals, advance equity and measure community resilience.
LEED for Cities provides a roadmap to evaluate and track progress on economic, environmental, and social conditions in your community. Built by and for local governments, LEED for Cities helps achieve meaningful results like attracting new economic activity, improving health outcomes, saving money and becoming more resilient.
LEED for Cities provides a clear, data-driven approach to evaluating strengths and weaknesses. Certification identifies gaps, defines areas for prioritization and ensures that you are benchmarking progress against global standards. An independent, third-party verification provides transparency and accountability toward sustainability and climate commitments.
The certification milestone builds momentum and buy-in among staff, partners and stakeholders. Once certified, your jurisdiction is well-positioned to take advantage of funding opportunities, enabling you to do more within the structure of local government finance. Take the opportunity to educate residents, visitors, and business owners about your progress and priorities and commit to continuous improvement on your sustainability journey.