Just yesterday the Sustainable Sites Initiative unveiled the first national rating system for sustainable landscapes. This system covers all three sections of the process: design, construction, and maintenance and applies to both sites with or without buildings. It was made possible through a partnership with the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and the US Botanic Garden.

Nancy Somerville, the current Executive Vice President and CEO of ASLA explains that "while the carbon-neutral performance remains the holy grail for green buildings, sustainable landscapes move beyond a do-no-harm approach." What she is referring to is the ability of natural landscapes to sequester carbon and filter out toxics in the environment. Carbon dioxide, as many people are aware by now, is a potent green house gas (GHG) that has just recently been named by the EPA as a toxic gas that must be regulated. Plants naturally take up carbon in the atmosphere in order to give off valuable oxygen. In addition vegetation act as natural filters that trap and break down chemicals in the environment, especially in water before it permeates to subterranean groundwater.

The rating system is voluntary and covers landscapes of all sizes. Specifically within the rating system there are separate tiers for achieving a certain percentage of the rating credits (there are 250 in all). Prerequisites can also be met and applied toward credits if the use of brownfields or greyfields comes into play just like other rating tools such as LEED.

It's great to see landscape architects get into the mix with an official rating system as I feel they are too often neglected when it comes to the green design movement. 

What do you think?

Link to announcement: http://www.asla.org/NewsReleaseDetails.aspx?id=24890

Link to Sustainable Sites Initiative: http://www.sustainablesites.org