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comment Landscape Architecture Is Going “Greener”
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the University of Texas at Austin’s Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and the United States Botanic Garden announced the Sustainable Sites Initiative—a new rating system that explores an environmentally mindful standard for landscape architecture—at the 2007 ALSA EXPO in San Francisco this month.
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The Sustainable Sites Initiative is positioned to be for landscape design what the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system is for the built environment. “This will provide the missing link for green building standards,” said Nancy Somerville, Executive Vice President and CEO of ASLA. “Developers, designers, owners, and public officials will now have the tools at hand to significantly increase sustainability in the built environment, from interiors to landscapes.”
The initiative has been in the works for years. In 2005, a Product Development Committee was created by ASLA, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and the U.S. Botanic Garden to represent eight stakeholder organizations that are also involved in the initiative. Included among these organizations are the USGBC, the Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenScapes Program, and the National Recreation and Parks Association. The development of the initiative will continue over the next five years under the direction of these organizations.
Earlier this year, subcommittees comprised of 30 landscape industry experts were organized to conduct research, analyze data and explore environmental concerns regarding water efficiency and conservation, the management of invasive vegetation, waste, and the effects of disturbing soil in landscape design. Subcommittee members will work to create appropriate sustainability standards and guidelines, and will publish their findings in a landscape sustainability reference, anticipated for publication in the spring of 2012.
The subcommittee members will also address fiscal issues of sustainability. Frederic R. Steiner, FASLA, Dean of The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, and a member of the Wildflower Center Advisory Council, stated, “We are acutely aware that the best guidelines and standards in the world will not be adopted if they are not cost-effective.”
The first of three Sustainable Sites Initiative Practice Guidelines and Metrics reports will be available online November 1, 2007. A 45-day public comment period will follow. “We want to communicate with the landscape industry at large, and give them an opportunity to guide this process,” said Heather Venhaus, Project Manager for the Sustainable Sites Initiative.
“This initiative is more than developing a new standard,” continued Venhaus. “The thing that’s amazing about landscape sustainability is that it is alive and can regenerate the degradation of our environment and buildings, which I think is pretty exciting.”
For more information:
www.asla.org
http://www.asla.org/meetings/am2007/
This article was produced by BuildingGreen, Inc.- www.buildinggreen.com
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