News Nugget
LEED for Weeds: New Program Will Rate Green Landscapes
By Courtney Lowery, 11-06-09
A coalition formed by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the United States Botanic Garden has created the nations first rating system for environmentally sensitive landscapes.
As LEED has done for buildings and Energy Star has done for appliances, the Sustainable Sites Initiatives will do for outside spaces. The groups describe the program like this: “Voluntary national guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance practices.”
Nancy Somerville, Executive Vice President and CEO of ASLA said in a press release on the project, “While carbon-neutral performance remains the holy grail for green buildings, sustainable landscapes move beyond a do-no-harm approach,” said “Landscapes sequester carbon, clean the air and water, increase energy efficiency, restore habitats and ultimately give back through significant economic, social and environmental benefits never fully measured until now.”
According to a USA Today story, “The rating will measure several criteria. They may include planting trees in a parking lot or paving with permeable materials to minimize heat and storm-water runoff. Or landscaping with native plants to reduce maintenance, irrigation and use of pesticides.”
Click here for that story and here for more information from the program itself.
[End of article]Can anyone anwser this for me? Why can't any wood from Montana be incorperated into LEED certified buildings? Seems like the most envrionmentally senstive thing to do would be to incorperate buliding products close to site. With LEED, you can't do that at all...at least for wood products. Why? RBM in C-falls would be a great example of using locally harvested, Montana wood products. Minimal shipping, milled within 100 miles, etc...to be LEED certified that wouldn't be an option. I believe Plum Creek is the only third party certified wood products. I won't even go down that road...
Seems like a scam to me...
Courtney, I totally loved this and plan on citing it in next week's Northstar Journal (http://nstar312.blogspot.com). We reach, by email, readers in the United States, Canada, Ireland, the UK, France and Australia. This is going to be of particular interest to a landscape architect in Oxford, England, who is also taking her masters in urban planning. Thank you for an outstanding and extremely relevant article. MS(R)M
Comment By Kent W, 11-19-09Thank you, Courtney, for publicizing this effort on this most important subject. As an ASLA member and experienced landscape architect I've been preaching this approach to our precious landscapes for years. They are, after all, the basis for all of our development, whether good or bad.
Comment By superrefman, 1-17-10Hello,
i'm a new reader here
<a >superrefman</a>