Green Building Moves Outdoors
A new rating system launches to encourage sustainable landscape design practices.

Though landscape architects often take great care to incorporate environmentally sound design, few methods exist to quantify the sustainability of designed landscapes. However, ASLA, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and the U.S. Botanic Garden launched a new program—called the Sustainable Sites Initiative—that hopes to solve that knowledge gap. The program’s official announcement took place at ASLA’s Annual Meeting and EXPO.
 
Just as the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system measures a building’s environmental impact, the Sites Initiative will measure the same for designed landscapes of all types, including public, commercial, and residential projects. The U.S. Green Building Council is lending its support to this project and plans to adopt the Sustainable Sites metrics into its LEED® system once they are finished.
 
The program’s genesis occurred in 2005 as ASLA and the Wildflower Center saw the need for a more thorough measurement of landscapes than currently available in other systems like LEED. The U.S. Botanic Garden joined in 2006, with the U.S. Green Building Council offering its support this year. Currently, 30 experts in subcommittees covering soils, hydrology, vegetation, human well-being, and materials are reviewing the available science to develop sustainable practices in those respective areas.
 
The program’s next major step comes November 1 with the release of its first report, followed by a 45-day public comment period. The report—the first of three over the next 18 months—will serve as a foundation for the eventual rating system. For more information, visit www.sustainablesites.org.