PhillyCarShare and Sustainable Design

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a widely-recognized rating system that assesses the performance of building design, construction and operations relative to critical environmental impacts. LEED was developed by membership of the The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) which represents all segments of the building industry. The LEED rating system is comprehensive and broken down into 5 categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy & Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality. An additional category is Innovation & Design Process and provides an opportunity to pursue sustainable building expertise and design measures not covered under the five standard categories. The rating system provides different levels of “green” certification based on the amount of credits earned: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

As a Sustainable Design Consultant for Friends Center’s complex at 1515 Arch Street, Re:Vision Architecture was able to work with Friends Center and PhillyCarShare to achieve one of the Sustainable Sites Credits that addresses low emitting and fuel efficient vehicles. The intent of this credit is to reduce pollution and land development impacts from automobile use. To achieve this, you need to provide low-emitting, fuel efficient (LEFE) vehicles and/or preferred parking for these vehicles, or install alternative-fuel refueling stations. For suburban projects, this is an easy credit to achieve since many buildings have parking lots where the owner can assign parking spaces for “low emitting and fuel efficient” vehicles (Check here to see if your car meets the requirements for this credit!). However, urban buildings like Friends Center have a difficult time achieving this since not many have parking lots or garages. Because Friends Center had a long standing contract with Philly Car Share and built into their policy that tenants use PCS for traveling to meetings that aren’t reachable by public transportation, RVA felt they were meeting the intent of the credit. In essence, they were providing LEFE vehicles to their building occupants. Based on the amount of people occupying the building and the amount of approved vehicles within a walkable distance, they were able to earn this point…which helped them become the highest rated LEED Platinum building within Pennsylvania!

Re:Vison Architecture is a member of PhillyCarShare, as are many of their employees, and they know the environmental benefits of membership. In addition to the potential for PhillyCarShare partnership on RVA’s green project like Bancroft Green in the Graduate Hospital area, RVA is excited about PCS’s Roaming Memberships which allow partnering car shares throughout the country to use PCS’s cars when visiting Philadelphia. This brings on many opportunities to help reduce visitors and business people traveling to and from Philadelphia to reduce pollution generated from non-LEFE vehicles!

Re:Vision Architecture Projects that use PhillyCarShare:

• Bancroft Green, a new green residential development in the Graduate Hospital area that has two car share pods and offers a year free PCS membership.

- Laura Raymond, LEED AP
Green Advantage Certified

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