In April of 2008, Schinnerer reported that the Social Economic Environmental Design Network, or SEED (linked article is password-protected for Schinnerer and CNA policyholder and broker use only), held its first national conference. Started in 2005, the SEED network’s mission is “to increase the social relevancy of the built environment.” Its guiding principles encourage SEED members to:
- advocate with those that have a limited voice in public life;
- build structures for inclusion that engage stakeholders and allow communities to make decisions;
- promote social equality through discourse that reflects a range of values and social identities;
- generate ideas that grow from place and build local capacity; and
- believe that a community’s design should help conserve resources and minimize waste.
At the Structures for Inclusion conference in Washington, D.C. in March, SEED introduced a new standard for evaluating projects based on SEED principles. This standard includes the SEED Evaluator, an online tool that helps users through the process of creating a socially, economically, and environmentally-sensible building or community.
It is not clear from SEED’s information how well-intentioned designers will be able to convince project owners, government agencies, or other funding sources to apply SEED in the process of investing in and creating capital assets. While LEED certification can produce a return on investment through significant financial pay-backs to a project client through energy and water savings, tax rebates, zoning or density variances, and permitting acceleration, currently no direct financial advantages exist for project owners through SEED certification. Perhaps the early LEED attractions of a plaque, public recognition, and the possibility of user or tenant goodwill will translate over to the inclusion of the SEED principles.