Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Winter 2009 - (Page 10)
ON THE ROOF WITH… ON THE ROOF WITH… NANCY SOMERVILLE EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT ASLA Interview by Caroline Nolan The Sustainable Sites Initiative (Sites) is an interdisciplinary effort by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the United States Botanic Garden to create voluntary national guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance practices. On November 10th last year, Sites released the Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks Draft 2008 for public comment. This important milestone builds on the initial Standards and Guidelines: Preliminary Report released in November 2007 – a report that generated over 450 responses covering more than 1,000 pages. The new draft contains over 50 proposed prerequisites and credits ranging from site election to sustainable maintenance practices. The metrics format is similar to existing leed® tools in structure and includes a number components including social and economic benefits and ecosystem services addressed. As executive vice president of the American Society of Landscape Architects (asla), Nancy C. Somerville has played a significant role in helping to develop the Sites Initiative. We caught up with Nancy, a 2008 Civic Award of Excellence Winner from Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, in Washington, d.c. to learn more. 10 LIVING ARCHITECTURE MONITOR WINTER
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Winter 2009