Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Spring 2010 - (Page 6)

ON THE ROOF WITH… ON THE ROOF WITH… STEVE WINDHAGER, PH.D DIRECTOR, LANDSCAPE RESTORATION & SUSTAINABLE SITES INITIATIVE, LADY BIRD JOHNSON WILDFLOWER CENTER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS IN AUSTIN, TEXAS By Caroline M. Nolan he Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES™) is a partnership of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at Austin and the United States Botanic Garden to establish and encourage more sustainable sites – that is, protective and restorative landscapes for healthy ecosystems. Since 2005, SITES has focused on creating voluntary national guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance practices. The most recent version was released in November 2009 after two rounds of exten6 LIVING ARCHITECTURE MONITOR T sive consultation and collaboration with an interdisciplinary group of stakeholders. At press time, SITES was making its final selection of more than 200 pilot projects to further test the rating system. The resulting pilot projects —including one in each of Canada, Spain and Iceland — will soon be featured on the SITES website at www.sustainablesites.org. Steve Windhager, Ph.D has been an active participant in the process as SITES’ director. An ecologist, Steve joined the Wildflower Center in August 1999 to renew the Center’s commitment to research by creating and serving as director for the Landscape Restoration Pro- gram. His primary research focuses on designed ecological systems to achieve specific goals including ecological restoration and ecosystem services production. He was on the board of directors for the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER International) from 1998 to 2004, and currently sits on the editorial board for SER’s journal, Restoration Ecology. Windhager has a B.A. in Philosophy from Texas A&M as well as a Masters in Environmental Ethics and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science from the University of North Texas. We spoke to him about SITES from his office at the Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. SPRING 2010 http://www.sustainablesites.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Spring 2010

Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Spring 2010
Contents
From the Founder
Letters
Strata
Roofing Industry Research Summit
New LAM Editorial Advisory Board Kicks Off
On the Roof With Steve Windhager
Green Philly
Taking the Pulse
Greening the Green Roof System
More Bees, Please!
Dampening Green Roof Fire Risk
New Online Tools for Green Roof and Wall Professionals
New Corporate Members
New GRPS
GHRC Professional Development Calendar
Building Green Together

Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Spring 2010