Earn LEED Points by Protecting & Promoting Pollinator Health
By bringing beehives to your property and actively championing pollinator health, you can earn your property points towards a LEED certification.
What is “Green Building”?
Green building is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle. There are various programs that offer green building certifications to buildings that qualify.
What is a LEED Certification?
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a third-party certification program for green buildings developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). It is the most common green building certification found around the world.
Innovation with LEED
LEED certification encourages innovation in sustainable urban development by awarding credits to projects that satisfy requirements in categories such as Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, and Indoor Environmental Quality. LEED-designed work and living places stimulate resource efficiency, productive communities, environmental preservation, and better human health.
How Does a Pollinator Program Fit Into LEED Certifications?
An encompassing Pollinator Program, such as the one offered by Best Bees, has an outstanding impact on its local environment and communities. Having a strong Pollinator Program is more than simply having beehives – it means taking action to protect and promote pollinators, and sharing the benefits of bees with your community.
Some examples of the above include:
What LEED Points Does a Pollinator Program Afford Your Property?
Local Food Production |
1 credit |
|---|---|
Social Equity Within the Community |
1 credit |
Heat Island Reduction |
2 credits |
Site Development - Protect or Restore Habitat |
2 credits |
Innovation |
1 credit |
How a Pollinator Program Qualifies for Each LEED Point
Local Food Production
Earn one point toward LEED Certification by providing a dedicated portion of your pollinator garden for permanent, onsite food production.
This particular project informs the community about small-scale food production and raises awareness about bees. This opens up the conversation. There’s more education, greater awareness – climate awareness – and hopefully more action.
Social Equity Within The Community
When starting green building projects, it’s important that an organization first understands its relationships to the impacted community and implement targeted strategies that address social equity. Earn one point toward LEED Certification by completing the Social Economic Environmental Design (SEED) Evaluator tool or by partnering with an existing service/advocacy organization.
A pollinator program can improve social equity if you decide to partner with a local, not-for-profit food bank to donate food produced from your pollinator garden. This helps create a fairer, healthier, and more supportive environment for those who work/live in your community.
Heat Island Reduction
Beehives and green roofs go hand-in-hand. They both aid in the effort to reduce the effects of climate change. Using native plants to attract pollinators yields much more growth for your vegetated roofs. This relationship between bees and green roofs limits the amount of surface area that absorbs heat, like cement, and reduces the heat island effect.
This project minimizes the effects on microclimates and human-wildlife habitats by reducing heat islands. Green roofs aid in better air quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Site Development - Protect or Restore Habitat
Earn 2 points toward LEED Certification if the plants on your property, green roof, or in your garden are native and provide habitat for pollinators, in addition to promoting biodiversity in your local environment.
This project conserves existing natural areas and restores damaged areas to provide habitat and promote biodiversity. Protection and restoration are key components when it comes to caring for thriving, healthy habitats.
Innovation
Beehives help green building projects achieve exceptional or innovative performance. For people that like to think outside of the box, you can earn an Innovation LEED credit using a strategy not addressed in the LEED green building rating system.
Your measurable environmental performance must identify the following:
- the intent of the proposed innovation credit;
- proposed compliance requirements;
- proposed submittals to demonstrate compliance; and
- strategies used to meet requirements.
More examples of innovation can be found in the LEED Innovation Catalog.
What Next?
Interested in bringing pollinators to your property to help you attain a SITES certification? Click the button below to connect with a member of our team and learn more about creating your perfect pollinator program with Best Bees.