Monday, June 15, 2009

LEED and Landscape Architects

connie blog post

I’ve been a LEED ap for three years now. Although I do a number of government projects and I’m active in USGBC, I have not done a LEED project yet. Why?

Part of it is that South Florida is way behind the rest of the country in LEED projects. The economy may have something to do with it as well.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen LEED projects for which a Landscape Architect was chosen that was not a LEED ap. It was apparent in the finished product that they were not familiar with what LEED was trying to accomplish. Why were they chosen for the project?

To me, the site and what happens on it are critical but it is often an afterthought to architects and civil engineers that are the project managers on these projects. Maybe they think anything that is planted is “green”. Maybe we, as Landscape Architects don’t care enough to learn about sustainable ways to do things successfully. Maybe we haven’t done a good job of educating project managers, explaining the benefits of our services enough.

Saving the earth should start with exactly that – making sure that we don’t compact the earth, we maintain or improve the quality of soil, we save or restore vegetation that cools temperatures and reduces carbon and we collect, preserve and clean water just to name a few. SPROUT!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Landscaping is one of the largest growing businesses . Yes, it is worth your time! You can be your own boss and work a much or as little as you want. Landscaping in my area it has gone up in the past 3 years by 35%. The job demand is growing in leaps and bounds......If you have the architecture degree it could be invaluable.
Landscaping company northern virginia

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