November 12, 2008—The Sustainable Sites Initiative has released for public comment its new report titled Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks Draft 2008, which the group calls the most comprehensive set of national guidelines yet developed for the sustainable design, construction, and maintenance of landscapes. Both the report and an online feedback form are available on the Sustainable Sites Initiative’s Web site.
According to the organization, these guidelines will enable built landscapes to support natural ecological functions by protecting existing ecosystems and regenerating ecological capacity where it has been lost. The report includes more than 50 prerequisites and credit options that cover everything from initial site selection to construction and maintenance, tailored to apply to any landscape, with our without buildings.
Just as the US Green Building Council’s LEED rating system measures a building’s environmental impact, the Sustainable Sites Initiative is designed to measure the sustainability of designed landscapes of all types including public, commercial, and residential projects. The USGBC is lending its support to this project and says it anticipates adoption of the Sustainable Sites metrics into its LEED system once they are finished.
The Sustainable Sites Initiative is an interdisciplinary partnership between the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin, the United States Botanic Garden, and a diverse group of other stakeholder organizations, focused on developing guidelines and standards for landscape sustainability.
