Alexandria Recognized For Efforts To Fight Climate Change

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Alexandria announced Wednesday that it has achieved Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) gold certification through the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED for Cities rating system.

The rating system evaluates cities’ performance against key climate change action metrics in areas of energy, water, waste, transportation, education, health, safety, prosperity and equitability.

Alexandria is the first city in Virginia to certify under the new v4.1 rating system, joining nearly 30 cities nationwide.

“Achieving LEED Gold certification at the city level validates Alexandria’s commitment to a sustainable and equitable future for our community,” Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson said in a news release. “It is a testament to our whole-city effort to embed environmental stewardship into all of our work by following Eco-City Alexandria principles. We have made tremendous progress and will continue to build on that work going forward.”

According to city officials, Alexandria attained LEED gold-level certification by demonstrating exemplary actions that reflect greenhouse gas emission reductions, natural resource conservation and restoration, resilience planning, and progressive smart mobility policies. Many of these actions reflect implementation of the City’s Environmental Action Plan 2040.

Other recognized actions include preservation of high-priority (historic) sites, achievements in housing and transportation affordability, civic and community engagement, civil and human rights, and racial and social equity. In addition, Alexandria was recognized for innovations related to the Metroway Bus Rapid Transit system, Alexandria Library’s Climate Resilience Hub and RAISE: Alexandria’s Trauma-Informed Community Network.

“Transforming our cities to be more sustainable happens structure by structure, block by block and neighborhood by neighborhood. Alexandria understands the value of LEED and, through certification, is setting goals and deploying strategies that are appropriate for their local environment and residents,” said Peter Templeton, President and CEO, USGBC. “Each new LEED certification is one step closer to revolutionizing the places where we live, learn, work and play.”

LEED is designed to help buildings, communities and cities achieve high performance in key areas of human and environmental health. The City of Alexandria joins a global network of more than 130 certified cities and communities. LEED was created by USGBC and is the world’s most widely used green building rating system.