Garden Rant: For Carbon-Neutral Buildings, Fix that Landscape! Annotated

LEED ratings for eco-friendliness in new buildings are all the rage in the construction world. The acronym stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and developers are suddenly scrambling to get them because they add so much to the selling price of both commercial and residential buildings.

But the next big thing is that LEED standards will soon include the “greening” of landscapes, thanks to the work of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the U.S. Botanic Garden. They’ve teamed up to form the Sustainable Sites Initiative and their experts (including Behnkes nurseryman John Peter Thompson) are working hard to establish standards for things like percentage of green space, erosion prevention, waste management, wildlife habitat and – get this – even human health, cognitive function and social dynamics.