The State of Rhode Island is expanding its longstanding Green Buildings Act adding built landscapes to the list of public projects that must be built to recognized green building standards. Rhode Island has since 2008 mandated the public construction projects larger than 5,000 gross square feet “shall be designed and constructed to at least the … Continue Reading
SITES is a sustainable landscape rating system. SITES is modeled after the LEED green building rating system. And while it is a standalone tool for measuring landscape sustainability, in June 2015, Green Business Certification Inc., the USGBC associated certification body for LEED, announced it had acquired the exclusive rights to the SITES rating system, its … Continue Reading
King County, Washington is applauded by some for joining Greensburg, Kansas (the tornado destroyed town) as only one of two local governments mandating government building to a LEED Platinum standard. But many critically ask, is it a misuse of the LEED "voluntary third party green building rating system" for a government to mandate by law that government owned buildings be constructed to that "voluntary" standard?… Continue Reading
In an all-out brawl within the environmental industrial complex, last week the American Society of Landscape Architects filed a lawsuit over the ownership of the trademark for the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) against the Lady Bird Johnson Wildlife Center at the University of Texas. The complaint is a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of not having a written agreement between partners or otherwise to protect valuable intellectual property.… Continue Reading