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2012 Spring | Policy & Regulation, Sustainability

Could Sound Transit LINK Light Rail be LEED certified?

Student(s):

Drew Collins

Program or Department(s):

  • Program on the Environment
  • University of Washington

Site supervisor(s):

Amy Shatzkin

Partner(s):

  • Sound Transit

Faculty advisor(s):

Branden Born, Department of Urban Design & Planning, University of Washington

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is the most popular metric for quantifying sustainability in the built environment. Transit agencies striving for sustainability are considering how to attach their sustainability to metric systems like LEED, and many agencies have tried to scale LEED to fit their projects. By comparing the different methods organizations have used for evaluating transit-based sustainability, and by examining the challenges in implementing a system at Seattle’s Sound Transit, I concluded that a LEED-style, point-based system or check- list is not effective at determining the sustainability of new transit corridors.