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Ecology Governing Green
Local municipalities are going green. Heartening evidence that concern for the environment and sustainable building are becoming mainstream are the increasingly numerous "green building" programs offered by municipalities and homebuilders' associations across the country. Some are more comprehensive than others with regard to landscape issues, and the types of incentives for participation vary widely. But the fact remains that many municipalities are recognizing that they must support and encourage practitioners to build in an environmentally responsible way. Municipal green building programs have become tremendous resources for the facilitation and implementation of sustainable landscapes. Programs that require LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a national green building assessment system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council) certification to achieve benefits come the closest to a comprehensive approach to sustainable landscapes. However, the current version of LEED(Commercial Version 2.0) could be more comprehensive with respect to site issues, as was explained in "LEEDing the Way," Landscape Architecture, May 2001. In addition, like many programs and resources in the green building industry, municipal programs are largely focused on buildings, sometimes addressing landscape issues only in passing. …To read the entire article, subscribe to LAM! |
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