by Danielle Pieranunzi, SITES AP, LEED AP

Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) has released the first addenda to the SITES v2 rating system—available on the SITES Resources webpage—and is seeking your feedback on SITES.

What are addenda?

Addenda are official updates that incorporate changes and improvements to the SITES v2 rating system and other published guidance documents to help clarify, correct, interpret or provide alternative language. Addenda should be referred to in conjunction with the SITES v2 rating system and other published guidance documents. Addenda are designed to be an intermediate step before an official version update to address needed changes to the rating system. Addenda are not intended to be inclusive of every needed change but are intentionally kept brief to be manageable.

What is included in the Q4 2024 addenda release?

This first addenda release includes various updates to the SITES v2 rating system for new construction and major renovations. Within these, there are both clarifications and credit changes, such as:

• Credit 4.8: Optimize biomass. The biomass density index value for “unmanaged grass layers” (i.e., prairie) has been increased to more accurately reflect its provision of ecosystem services. Additionally, a new resource (RESOLVE) was provided to assist projects in determining the site’s terrestrial biome.
• Credit 6.9: Encourage fuel efficient and multi-modal transportation. The option regarding electric recharge or alternative recharge stations now includes a minimum quantity. Additionally, the option for short- and long-term bicycle parking has more flexibility depending on site programming and use.

Be sure to review the complete list of updates in the SITES v2 addenda table.

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by Danielle Pieranunzi

Do you want to better understand how your completed project is performing and demonstrate its success? Do you have an existing park, campus, government facility, or other outdoor space that you would like to earn SITES certification for sustainable and resilient land development? Are you interested in informing and influencing the next SITES certification tool?

If any of this sounds of interest, the Sustainable SITES Initiative wants to hear from you.

SITES certification offers a path for landscape projects to enhance their sustainability, implement green infrastructure strategies, and improve resilience through nature-based solutions. As you may know, the current SITES v2 rating system is directed at new construction and major renovation projects. While this work is vital, there are many more landscapes that have already been built that seek these same goals.

To address this gap, SITES is currently developing a framework that expands into ongoing sustainable site management practices and the monitoring and reporting of their social, economic, and environmental benefits.

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by Danielle Pieranunzi

The first part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report, described by UN Secretary-General António Guterres as “code red for humanity,” was released on August 9, 2021. For those of us invested in sustainability and climate mitigation, the results were sobering but unsurprising: We’re on track to exceed 1.5 degrees C of warming in the next two decades, and every fraction of a degree of warming leads to more dangerous and costly impacts for the planet. Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees C by the end of the century is still within reach, but requires holistic, transformational change. It requires universal adoption of sustainability guidelines, including broad support for sustainable landscapes, which provide the unique opportunity to not only reduce carbon emissions but to protect and even create carbon sinks. To support these goals, GBCI recently released a SITES Pilot Credit focused on assessing and improving site carbon performance.

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by Danielle Pieranunzi

In order to create a truly sustainable, resilient, equitable, and healthy society, we must address our outdoor spaces. Unlike conventional buildings, which play an immense role in impacting both our outdoor and indoor environments, healthy and functional landscapes appreciate in value over time, providing a multitude of benefits at various scales—from reducing urban heat island effects and cleaning stormwater runoff in cities to improving the mental and physical health of those who interact with these spaces.

While every building has a site, not every site has a building, and the SITES program fills a necessary and important gap in elevating the importance of landscapes and sustainable site development.

This is why it’s so exciting to see the ways that the market is growing for SITES. Within the past year alone, we saw new project types, new countries implementing the rating system, and stronger commitments to sustainability with Platinum-level certification. To keep up with market demand, we also began formally offering precertification, which can help projects attract community supporters, funders, and can even expedite permitting in some localities.

The SITES program celebrated many “firsts” in the past year, and it is through projects’ leadership that we continue to see demand and ingenuity move the market for sustainable outdoor spaces forward.

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