Sustainable Sites Initiative Update

The goal of the Sustainable Sites Initiative is to create the first ever comprehensive voluntary rating system for sustainable site development of all sizes, with or without buildings. Now the initiative needs help to make it better.

The program, a partnership between ASLA, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and the United States Botanic Garden (USBG), in conjunction with a diverse group of stakeholder organizations, released the first preliminary draft report in November.

U.S. Green Building Council CEO Rick Fedrizzi mentioned working with ASLA shortly before he introduced keynote speaker former President Bill Clinton during a plenary session at the 2007 Greenbuild Conference in Chicago in November.

To make this program successful, the Sustainable Sites Initiative needs input on all aspects of the content presented in the initial draft report. It must contain the latest science. It must be economically feasible. For this reason, members are encouraged to pass this document along to other colleagues as well: landscape architects, real estate developers, resort planners, retail managers, investors, planners, engineers, architects, policy makers, mental health professionals, contractors. There are no inappropriate reviewers. With something this groundbreaking, ideas will come from many nontraditional sources.

At www.sustainablesites.org there is an online feedback form to submit comments on the draft report. However, the Initiative will accept comments sent via email, fax, or mail. Some specific areas that require feedback include cost-benefit analysis of all phases of land planning and bioregional best practices. Feedback on the preliminary draft is due January 11, 2008.

Already the Sustainablesites.org site has been very popular. Some statistics:

• Since launch, the preliminary report has been downloaded 6,500 times
• The site to date has had 11,500 visitors from 77 countries around the world, and
• More than 50 feedback responses have been received.

We are not limiting comments to just the report; the Sustainable Sites Initiative is open to any and all suggestions for improvement.