• Green Neighborhoods
  • Learn
  • Plan
    • Leading Actions
    • Commit to Action
    • Start Fast
    • Assess the Situation
    • Set Goals
    • Plan
    • Implement
    • Measure Success
  • Act
Set Goals
Building a green neighborhood plan around goals and targets will help guide plan development and ensure high levels of performance.
The Dockside Green project in Victoria BC is pursuing LEED Platinum for all buildings on site. The new mixed use neighbourhood will be the greenest in Canada when it is complete. Photo Credit: Busby Perkins + Will

Setting Goals:

Consider primary and secondary goals in a plan, in order to link environmental performance with more easily measurable neighborhood characteristics. 

  • Primary goals:
Primary targets or goals are tied directly to end goals, such as total energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, safety or health.  These can be difficult to set and relatively hard to assess, especially at a neighborhood level, because they are affected by many actions at different scales, and data from many sources is needed.  Ideally, these targets are tied to broadly recognized and adopted targets, such as the greenhouse gas targets supported by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
  • Secondary goals:
Secondary targets or goals are tied to characteristics of a neighborhood (such as density) that affect end-goal performance.  These are easier to set and measure because data is easier for local governments to gather.  They are most defensible when connected to generally accepted thresholds, such as minimum densities needed to support transit.

Identifying qualitative and quantitative targets:

Some neighborhood scale pilot projects have set targets for greenhouse gas reduction and other goals, and explored how to reach them.

For example, the Lloyd Crossing study set aggressive performance targets based on the amount of rainfall and solar energy incident on the site, or Civano Solar Village in Arizona, which set a target of reducing energy use and associated emissions by 75 percent.

Community-wide targets could also be used as a starting point for discussion, with targets for more compact neighborhoods set higher than the average for the whole community.

Qualitative and quantitative targets:

Most neighborhood plans adopt secondary targets, rather than primary targets. The secondary targets may be qualitative or quantitative.  LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) offers an excellent set of secondary targets that are aggregated to give overall performance levels (silver, gold, and platinum). 

These secondary targets typically include goals for green building levels of efficiency, transportation modal shifts, water efficiency, urban vegetation and many others – each of which contributes directly to meeting a primary greenhouse gas reduction target. 

Linking primary and secondary targets:

To rigorously link secondary targets to a primary reduction target, you can use software for neighborhood modeling.  However, this approach can be time- and resource-intensive.

Benchmarking is easier and faster.  You simply compare your neighborhood with others with similar characteristics, where performance is known – and estimate your neighborhood’s performance to be similar to theirs.  While less accurate, the benchmarking approach can support a useful green neighborhood strategy. 

Benchmarking was used in 1996 for the Southeast False Creek sustainable neighborhood in Vancouver, British Columbia.