The Field

It was great to meet some of you at the Annual Meeting in Chicago! As we end the year we are taking this opportunity to review 2015, highlight sustainable design topics that were raised by meeting attendees, and remind SDD members who did not attend the Annual Meeting that they can still avail themselves of valuable resources from the 2015 Annual Meeting Handouts.

But first, let’s take a few moments to summarize some highlights from the meeting. First a review of the past years SDD accomplishments:

Online Learning:
•    Community Engagement as an Essential Component for Sustainable Design
•    Green Design in Remnant Urban Landscapes

The Field:
•    The Role of Landscape in Green Building
•    If These Walls Could Talk
•    Allegheny County’s Monitored Green Roof

If you missed any of the posts or Online Learning opportunities, click the links above or take the time to visit the Sustainable Design and Development PPN page on The Field to see additional topics from years past. Field posts are member generated and a great opportunity for practitioners, emerging professionals, graduate students, and undergraduate students to get national exposure on sustainable design topics of interest.

Next, we heard presentations from Jamie Stratter, Vice President Strategic Relationships, USGBC and Micah Silvey, Director, GBCI about the latest Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES®) program and certification news. Both Jamie and Micah emphasized their desire to connect with ASLA members who are considering SITES certification for their projects. For additional information, visit the SITES webpage where you can also direct your questions to staff that are ready and willing to make the process as easy as possible.

We then opened the meeting to participants and asked everyone to discuss the topics that were of most interest to them or topics they thought deserved more coverage. A short list of subjects are summarized below and we encourage all of you to look at the list, connect with us to add more, and share your ideas on how they might best be addressed by our PPN (Online Learning webinar? The Field post? 2016 Annual Meeting Call for Presentations?).  This PPN is about you and your interests!

•    Stormwater innovations in the urban environment
•    Urban corridors for pollinators
•    Stormwater and tidal restoration
•    SITES professional accreditation and certification

And to wrap up 2015, consider checking out these links to the 2015 Annual Meeting Handouts – whether you attended or not. A quick list of handouts from meeting sessions that contain some great references on complete streets, performance metrics, and environmental justice are listed below:

•    Landscape Performance: Determining What and How to Measure
•    Beyond the Buzz Word: Holding “Green” Accountable
•    Measuring Environmental Justice
•    Some Assembly Required: Lessons Learned in Complete Streets Implementation
•    Is it working? Practical approaches to the measurement and verification of landscape performance
•    Native Meadows and Grasslands: From Vision to Reality
•    Re-envisioning Diversity: Integrating Rural and Urban Pollinator Habitats
•    Pesticides and Pollinators: Policy, Practice, Activism

by Lisa Cowan, ASLA, SDD PPN Past Co-Chair and Kevin Burke, ASLA, SDD PPN Officer