Dive Brief:

The Chicago suburb of Highland Park, IL, is considering a proposal that would require all new commercial, industrial and multi-family residential buildings to satisfy the bird collision deterrence standards in a LEED pilot credit program, the Chicago Tribune reported.

In order to earn credit under the LEED program, buildings must score a bird “threat factor” of 15 or less by implementing bird-friendly design, lighting and location selection.

The Highland Park City Council, the Tribune reported, already requires bird-friendly design and materials in new city buildings, and U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley of Chicago introduced the Federal Bird-Safe Buildings Act this year, which would require public buildings, funded by the General Services Administration, to incorporate bird-friendly design.

Dive Insight:

The bird-friendly design of high-profile buildings has been in the news this year. Some have opted to embrace bird safety in their designs, like the Duke University School of Engineering's Fitzpatrick Center, which modified its building’s glass to be more visible to birds.

However, others find the cost of such changes prohibitive. The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority declined to replace or alter approximately 200,000 sf of glass around the new Minnesota Vikings stadium claiming the change could cost as much as $60 million.

When birds see reflected trees and sky in glass, they often fly straight into the glass, unable to distinguish the images from the real thing. According to the American Bird Conservancy, 100 million to a billion birds are killed in such collisions each year.