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Permalink Reply by Brian Hochstein on October 22, 2009 at 2:09pm

As a Landscape Architect who has gone through the LEED Rating System multiple times, my main frustration is that we have very little impact when it comes to achieving points. The majority of the points are achieved through architectural and MEP design. It may be frowned upon, but I believe a LEED designation could be achieved without any input from a Landscape Architect or Environmental Planner. My hope is that the Sustainable Sites Initiative will be a program that communities can incorporate to help drive more sustainable development. If it is a guideline that can be implemented by cities rather than another point system, it will have far more impact on site design and development than LEED as it exists today.

As far as the LEED ND system, I believe we just have to wait and see what the final documentation states. The USGBC will have to be innovative to find a way to truly address neighborhoods and site. Right now the majority of LEED is focused on design within the building envelope. Once we are able to evaluate the final product, we will be able to decide if it can make any meaningful difference to how neighborhoods are designed.

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Permalink Reply by Jill Bellenger on October 23, 2009 at 10:40am

Thanks, Brian, for your comments! I thought it would be interesting in addition to these questions for you to check out a great article I found from a few years ago, it describes a similar topic and proceeds to list the credits where landscape architects/planners have direct impact in the LEED credit system. Here's the link: LEED in the Landscape

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Permalink Reply by Brian Hochstein on October 26, 2009 at 6:14am

Thanks for the read. I always appreciate learning more. I hope my previous post wasn't too jaded. I have a few comments about the credit list. Disclaimer: I live in Kansas City so these may be some very regional opinions. First I will state that if you have a dedicated owner/developer who truly wants to create a "real" LEED project they need to have their design team assembled before site selection. Unfortunately I have never been a part of the process that early and it doesn't seem to happen this way very often. Without an consultant to help them Credits for the Sustainable Sites section quickly fall by the wayside. No site selection, no urban redevelopment, no brownfield, little concern for alternative transportation. Suddenly you are to credit 5 on a green field because the land cost less. Credits 5, 6, 7 and 8 are where I have seen the most impact. Water Efficiency is important and these two credits are also where we have a definite impact. That takes us to Materials and Resources. I agree that there can be some impact here, but I would argue that once again it has been limited in my experience. And these are not solely on the Landscape Architect. If the architect is not also dedicated to those points you can not achieve the requirements to earn the points. So rather than the 27 total credits I feel that it our impact more often than not is much lower, around 10-12 points. I also fully acknowledge that 10-12 points is nothing to turn your nose up at. Combined with the architecture and MEP design you are well on your way to a LEED site.

All that being said, I think that there is a real opportunity to do something really well with the Sustainable Sites Initiative. I feel that as long as it can stand on its own, it will be successful. SSI can help drive ecological design at the community level and with that support, we can design better environmental systems and dictate the sites that the buildings are located on.

To wrap up, I believe that LEED, SSI and other design systems are in their essence good. They are promoting design the right way. Sometimes the execution could be better.

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Permalink Reply by April Philips on October 28, 2009 at 11:46pm

Hello Jill.
Great series of questions.

My comment is on the Sustainable Sites Intitiative which will go much farther than LEED with realtionship to the horizontal aspects of a site. LEED is still primarily a vertcial building rating system and that has been its intent from the start. The intent for the Sustainable Sites Intiative is to improve the sustainabilty of site systems and human systems. One can't do one without affecting the other. So SSI wil be one of the first rating systems to consider human health and well being outside of a building. Its landscape aim is to design more regenerative sites and systems that ultimately could be net zero or better. Buildings can be less bad but generally they cannot be more good. Landscapes have the ability to do good and more good. It also is a compelling metric that will aid in the development of sustainable landscapes and green infrastructure design within cities and regions.

The Sustainable Sites Initiative, is a comprehensive set of national guidelines and performance benchmarks for the sustainable design, construction and maintenance of landscapes. 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 prerequisites and credit options that cover everything from initial site selection to construction and maintenance. The report represents thousands of hours with input from 37 technical advisors in hydrology, vegetation, soils, materials and human health and well being. These credits were tailored to apply to any landscape, with our without buildings. It is being developed as a stand alone system but is also being designed to fit into the future LEED bookshelf system. The intent is do go much deeper into the ecology of site and place than LEED(or Greenpoint) currently does when it comes to site and human health connections.The rating system and next version of the benchmarks wil be released publically on Nov. 5, 2009.

That said, it will still be imperative that outreach and education take place even more to help shift our culture to see the value in sustainable landscapes. We have taken nature for granted for so long. It involves not just designers but the construction industry and all associated disciplines to make the leap to moving forward into this new paradigm of consiousness. Active Leadership is key.

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Permalink Reply by Oona on November 18, 2009 at 4:37pm

Sorry for suck a late reply...Check out the "Communicating LEED to Skeptical LA's" discussion group - you will get a few different perspectives.

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