From www.sustainablesites.org, retrieved on Friday, January 9, 2009:
The Sustainable Sites Initaitive has announced its “2009 Sustainable Sites Initiative Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009: A compilation of current research, technology, and practices to provide technical guidance and performance benchmarks for sustainable land development and management practices.”
The program, begun in 2007,
“is an interdisciplinary partnership, led by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and the United States Botanic Garden, working to foster a transformation in land development and management practices. Through the creation and implementation of clear and rigorous design, construction, operations, and maintenance criteria, the Initiative aims to supplement existing green building and landscape guidelines as well as to become a stand-alone tool for site sustainability.
The Initiative envisions that sustainable land practices will enable natural and built systems to work together to protect and enhance the ability of landscapes to provide services such as climate regulation, clean air and water, and improved quality of life. For purposes of the Initiative, sustainability is defined as land practices “that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Click here to read the whole report, “Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks, Draft 2008.”