A building isn't very green if people have to drive miles and miles to get to it. That's why NRDC, the U.S. Green Building Council, and the Congress for the New Urbanism pioneered the LEED-ND rating system.

Officially launched in April 2009, LEED-ND, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development, goes beyond existing LEED standards for individual buildings. The rating system certifies development projects that foster energy-efficient neighborhoods. For example, new buildings erected on vacant lots in the center of a city, easily accessible by foot or public transit, score higher than a project in an outlying suburb that requires residents to drive to the store, to work, or to school. The LEED-ND certification confers another benefit: it can help developers get their construction plans approved by city regulators.

"Where a development, a home, or an office is located has a tremendous effect on its environmental footprint," says NRDC smart-growth program director Kaid Benfield. "People out on the fringes drive three, four, even five times as much" as people in the city center.

On May 21, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announced that the department will use LEED-ND's standards to decide how to award $3.25 billion in grants for public housing and other development. That's a big deal, Benfield says, because it means any new subsidized housing funded by those grants will be better designed and closer to transit and other conveniences than many older housing projects that were isolated from the rest of the city.