Washington, D.C. leadership has requested input from a range of organizations as it develops a new “unified vision” and “comprehensive framework” for a more sustainable Washington, D.C. The end goal: to connect sustainability with economic development and become the number-one, most sustainable city in North America. Washington, D.C. is currently ranked eighth in a recent [...]
Archive for the ‘Ecosystem Services’ Category
Becoming Greenest: Recommendations for a More Sustainable Washington, D.C.
Posted in Climate Change, Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Education, Environment, Forests, Green Buildings, Green Roofs, Landscape Architecture, Policy and Regulation, Public Spaces, Real Estate Development, Renewable Energy, Residential Design, Smart Growth, Sustainable Materials, Sustainable Transportation, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization, Waste, Water Management on 10/11/2011 | 2 Comments »
Toronto’s Genius Project: Evergreen Brickworks
Posted in Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Landscape Architecture, Sustainable Design, Sustainable Materials, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization on 10/06/2011 | Leave a Comment »
Evergreen Brickworks, a stellar project from Canada’s Evergreen non-profit, re-imagines a derelict 12-acre brownfield site, which was once a historic brickworks, in the heart of Toronto as a “center for learning on urban ecology.” At a session at the 2011 GreenBuild, Evergreen, an organization that asks people to ”imagine your city with nature,” and the team’s architects and [...]
Two SITES Pilot Projects Tell All
Posted in Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Landscape Architecture, Waste, Water Management, Wildlife on 10/05/2011 | Leave a Comment »
Kevin Burke, ASLA, senior landscape architect with Atlanta’s ambitious Beltline project, and Constance Haydock, a landscape architect working in the northeast, have been moving through the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) pilot project phase and lived to tell about it. In their presentations at the 2011 GreenBuild, both forward-thinking practitioners mentioned that early on in their careers, [...]
How to Do It: Measure for Green Infrastructure Success
Posted in Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Landscape Architecture, Sustainable Materials, Urban Design, Water Management on 10/05/2011 | 1 Comment »
At the 2011 GreenBuild in Toronto, Jim Schuessler, ASLA, BNIM, and David Dods, URS Corporation, a dynamic landscape architect and engineer duo, outlined lessons learned from two years of research into stormwater management best practices in sites across Kansas City. Sampling results from rain gardens, bioswales, “treatment trains,” and other green infrastructure systems, they explained [...]
ASLA Releases More than 475 Green Infrastructure Case Studies
Posted in Ecosystem Services, Environment, Green Roofs, Landscape Architecture, Policy and Regulation, Water Management on 09/26/2011 | Leave a Comment »
The Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) recently started a national rulemaking process, with the goal of creating a new, comprehensive program to reduce stormwater runoff. The E.P.A. announced that during this rulemaking it will evaluate green infrastructure design techniques that mimic natural processes to evapo-transpire, infiltrate and recharge, and harvest and re-use stormwater. Typical green infrastructure systems for managing stormwater include green roofs and [...]
Interview with Neil Chambers, Author of Urban Green: Architecture for the Future
Posted in Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Green Buildings, Landscape Architecture, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Design, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization, Water Management, Wildlife on 08/25/2011 | 1 Comment »
Neil B. Chambers, founder of Chambers Design, Inc. and Green Ground Zero, is an award-winning green designer with nearly 20 years of experience in the field of green building and infrastructure. He is the author of Urban Green: Architecture for the Future, and a contributing author to Treehugger. He is a national fellow with the [...]
Bus Shelter in Philly Gets a Mini-Green Roof
Posted in Ecosystem Services, Green Roofs, Landscape Architecture, Sustainable Transportation, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization, Water Management on 06/22/2011 | Leave a Comment »
A new demonstration project by the Philadelphia Department of Water shows that a green roof can pop up in the unlikeliest places, even on top of a bus shelter. While the 60-square-foot mini-green roof captures just a few gallons of water a day, it’s located at a key junction at 15th and Market streets, one of the city’s [...]
Interview with Nina-Marie Lister on Ecological Urbanism
Posted in Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Landscape Architecture, Sustainable Design, Sustainable Materials, Technology, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization, Water Management, Wildlife on 06/07/2011 | 6 Comments »
Nina-Marie Lister, MCIP, RPP, Affiliate ASLA, is Associate Professor of Urban & Regional Planning at Ryerson University, and Visiting Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD). She is a contributor to Ecological Urbanism and co-editor of The Ecosystem Approach: Complexity, Uncertainty and Managing for Sustainability. Lister recently served as the [...]
Bolivia Expected to Protect Rights of Nature
Posted in Climate Change, Ecosystem Restoration, Ecosystem Services, Policy and Regulation, Water Management on 05/31/2011 | 5 Comments »
Bolivia is expected to pass the world’s first comprehensive law to protect the rights of nature, granting all nature equal rights to humans. According to The Guardian, the new “Law of Mother Earth” would lead to “radical new conservation and social measures” designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, and hem in “mega-projects.” Nature would get 11 new [...]
Using Nature to Reinvent Cities
Posted in Ecosystem Services, Green Buildings, Landscape Architecture, Public Spaces, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization on 05/25/2011 | 4 Comments »
Dan Kaplan, who runs the urban design practice for FXFOWLE, argued for integrating innovative green designs into buildings and streets at a session at the National Building Museum. To reinvent cities, planners, landscape architects, and architects can create “regenerative places” that provide multiple benefits. The two major U.S. development models – Orange County, California, and New York City – present [...]



