Sustainable Sites Initiative

Reports

The Sustainable Sites Initiative: Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009 is the product of more than four years of work by a diverse group of experts in soils, hydrology, vegetation, materials and human health and well-being. It is expanded and updated from the Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks –Draft 2008, which was released in November 2008. The Initiative developed criteria for sustainable land practices that will enable built landscapes to support natural ecological functions by protecting existing ecosystems and regenerating ecological capacity where it has been lost. This report focuses on measuring and rewarding a project that protects, restores and regenerates ecosystem services – benefits provided by natural ecosystems such as cleaning air and water, climate regulation and human health benefits.

The Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009 includes a rating system for the credits that the pilot process will test for refinement before a formal release to the market place. The rating system contains 15 prerequisites and 51 credits that cover all stages of the site development process from site selection to landscape maintenance. Feedback from the pilot projects is being used to create a reference guide that will provide suggestions on how projects achieved the sustainability goals of specific credits.

The companion document titled The Case for Sustainable Landscapes provides a set of arguments—economic, environmental, and social—for the adoption of sustainable land practices, additional background on the science behind the performance criteria in the guidelines and performance benchmarks, the purpose and principles of the Sustainable Sites Initiative, and a sampling of some of the case studies the Initiative has followed.

The Sustainable Sites Initiative: Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009	The Case for Sustainable Landscapes
PDF version | Addenda	PDF version

If citing the reports described above, please use the following language:

Sustainable Sites Initiative. 2009.  The Sustainable Sites Initiative: Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009. Available at http://www.sustainablesites.org/report.

Sustainable Sites Initiative. 2009.  The Case for Sustainable Landscapes. Available at http://www.sustainablesites.org/report.