AIA 2012 National Convention and Design Exposition, Washington D.C.
Sustainable Justice: Making the Connection with LEED

Friday, May 18, 2012
2:00 p.m. 3:30 p.m.
Speakers: Julia Hughes, AIA, LEED AP, HMC Architects; Susan Oldroyd, FAIA, LEED AP, AECOM;  Raphael Sperry, AIA, LEED AP, current board member and past President of Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility

The justice system plays a crucial role in sustaining community life by providing services from public safety to dispute resolution. As it currently operates, our justice system falls short of a truly sustainable definition, but it cannot remain the same for long. For our society to sustain itself into the future, we must offer all members of our communities equal access to justice. The location, size, and accessibility of justice facilities are key to making justice services sustainable in terms of people, planet, and prosperity. Each building project is an opportunity to transform the relationship of the justice system to the communities it serves as it becomes more efficient in the use of resources. To encourage innovation in justice facilities, this presentation will include “benchmark” definitions for U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED evaluation criteria that will guide the qualification submittal and review process for prerequisites and LEED points for specific project features; and provide language available to practitioners to communicate sustainable design achievements and establish a precedent for point rewards. The criteria are measured by “doable, verifiable, measurable” design features that may be proved by studies compared to baselines, as determined by subject matter specialists.

Learning Objective:
1.  See how sustainable community-level solutions can be realized for program-intensive, functionally-driven justice building types.
2.  Understand how this systemic approach can enhance sustainable, social justice and economic development opportunities.
3.  Understand problem-solving institutions and how the impact is multiplied when linked into an intentional system.
4.  Learn about the community and justice rating system being developed by the AAJ sustainability committee.