About

ASLA 2022 Conference on Landscape Architecture Assessment

Please note: Data in the 2022 assessment has been updated in the 2024 assessment report. 
 
Due to procurement decisions made by ASLA and sustainability measures adopted by the organization, ASLA achieved a number of goals for its 2022 Conference on Landscape Architecture in San Francisco, California:

• The ASLA 2022 Conference was hosted at the Moscone Center conference facility, which is 100% powered by renewable hydropower and rooftop solar.
• 49,500 pounds of EXPO materials were donated to Habitat for Humanity.
• More than 900 students attended the conference for free in return for volunteering.
• $7,000 in carbon offset contributions were collected from ASLA members
    

SUSTAINABLE EVENT IMPACT ASSESSMENT (PDF)

The Sustainable Event Impact Assessment was developed in partnership with Honeycomb Strategies, a sustainability consulting company.

Actions

Based on these findings, ASLA committed to event sustainability strategies for its 2023 Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
  
To reduce adverse climate and environmental impacts and leave a positive legacy in Minneapolis, ASLA implemented these strategies:

• Creating climate change and biodiversity educational tracks at its Conference
• Implementing a range of measures related to food, energy, water, and waste to reduce impacts
• Offsetting 1,500 tons of its carbon dioxide emissions
• Launching a new sustainability commitment for EXPO exhibitors
• Providing free registrations for invited Twin Cities-based climate equity and justice leaders to attend the conference
• Providing free registrations for invited Twin Cities-based climate youth leaders (high school students) to attend the conference
• Developing a strategy to reduce transportation emissions for attendees and exhibitors traveling to and from the conference and while traveling in the host city.

Positive Climate Contributions

While it pursues its near-term goal of reducing emissions 20 percent by 2024, ASLA also committed to making positive climate contributions and purchasing 1,500 tons of carbon offsets in 2023. A total of 1,226 tons were purchased.

For 2023, ASLA partnered with Green Minneapolis, an innovator in urban tree carbon offsets, to scale up those efforts. The lead sponsor of ASLA 2023 Conference carbon offsets was Bartlett Tree Experts.

Green Minneapolis collaborated with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to complete the first urban tree carbon offset project in Minnesota. The project is part of the Twin Cities Climate Resiliency Initiative, a public private partnership that will significantly expand the urban tree canopy across Minneapolis and the seven county Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Through City Forest Credits, a national nonprofit carbon registry, the urban tree carbon offset project has achieved third-party verification for its carbon credits. The project includes 23,755 city trees planted by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board from 2019 to 2021. Over its 25-year duration, the project is estimated to store 48,865 metric tons of carbon and will provide quantified co-benefits related to rainfall interception, air quality, and energy savings.

According to Green Minneapolis offset funds collected by ASLA and its members will “support a 20-year vision to increase the metro area’s tree canopy through planting and maintaining five million trees on public and private lands, with a focus on addressing environmental inequities in the most disadvantaged communities.”