ICSC launches LEED for Retail web-based seminar for its members

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is inaugurating its LEED for Retail certification process this fall, and to help retailers and developers understand it, ICSC is launching a web-based seminar. Although this type of certification is already available through the USGBC's LEED Core & Shell Development rating system, LEED for Retail will create one of the first internationally recognized environmental benchmarks specifically for retail spaces. Introduced in 1998 as a standard for construction, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) has since been broadened into a comprehensive system of standards that take into account the differences among various property sectors. The system is aimed primarily at retailers, but observers say there is a role for landlords in the LEED retail certification. "If a retailer chooses to go for certification across its portfolio, a retail developer may be required to support them with documentation for that tenant to achieve the certification," said Justin Doak, co-founder of Austin, Texas-based sustainability consulting firm Ecoxera and a former LEED Retail technical manager for USGBC. "Even though it is not their center that is getting certified through this process, if a retail developer invests into good green practices, that is a great way to recruit tenants. When I was at USGBC, we would have retailers asking all the time, 'Can you give me a list of green developers and landlords?' " Beginning this month ICSC, Chain Store Age magazine and Ecoxera are the co-hosts of an online seminar series designed to help participants decide whether LEED for Retail is right for them. The three-part series will answer questions about the LEED Retail Building Design and Construction rating system, which is for retailers opening stand-alone stores and in which the retailer is involved in the site planning; and the LEED Interior Design and Construction system, for mall and open-air center tenants with little or no control over the site. Each module will be available as an audio file through ICSC.org. The USGBC says some 14,000 projects are LEED-certified in the U.S. and 30 other countries.