Sustainable Site Initiative—A Rating System for Green Sites

As programs appeared to highlight and reward sustainable buildings, those programs did little to push designers to think about sustainability of the site design. Design and construction rating systems included minimal recognition for the benefits of sustainable landscape and site design practices. To address that concern, the ASCE Environmental and Water Resources Institute joined an effort entitled the Sustainable Sites Initiative^TM. Headed by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin, and the U.S. Botanic Gardens, the Initiative has developed guidelines for sustainable sites. The resulting Sustainable Sites Initiative: Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009 (SITES 2009a) is the product of more than three years of work by an interdisciplinary group of hydrology, soils, vegetation, materials and human health and well-being experts. This publication_focuses on the protection, restoration and regeneration of the ecosystem services provided by natural ecosystems. It incentivizes sustainable land practices through recognition in order to enable built landscapes to support natural ecological functions by protecting existing ecosystems and regenerating lost ecosystem capacity. For example, the hydrology guidelines emphasize infiltration of storm water, pollutant removal and water reuse. The protection and restoration of waterway, wetland, and riparian floodplains are also highlighted. The document contains 15 prerequisites and 51 credits that cover all stages of the site development process from site selection to maintenance and monitoring. The credits focus on setting specific attainment levels for performance, whenever possible, instead of specifying specific best management practices. The U.S. Green Building Council, a stakeholder in the Initiative, anticipates incorporating the Sustainable Sites guidelines and performance benchmarks into future iterations of its LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System^TM.