Sustainable Sites andGreen Infrastructure

Linda Barfield de CastroLandscape Architect/Coordinator MIPPuerto Rico Tourism Company (PRTC)

787-721-2400 x2009lbarfield@prtourism.comwww.gotopuertorico.com

June 18-20, 2008University Of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez

Improving Life by Seeking Sustainability

The Sustainable Sites Initiative

• Interdisciplinary partnership between the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the United States Botanic Garden and others to develop:

– Voluntary standards and guidelines for sustainable land development and management practices

– Metrics to assess site performance and a rating system to recognize achievements

The Sustainable Sites Initiative

• Desire to protect and enhance the ability of landscapes to provide services such as:

– Climate regulation

– Clean air and water

– Improved quality of life

• Supplement existing green building and landscape guidelines

• Become a stand-alone tool for site sustainability

• More information at www.sustainablesites.org

Why Sustainable Sites?

• Landscapes have great potential to remedy environmental /social damage

– “Site design can be improved to protect and regenerate the landscape’s ability to regulate the climate, clean air and water, and improve our quality of life.”

What makes a landscape sustainable?

• A sustainable site links natural and built systems to achieve balanced environmental, social and economic outcomes and improves quality of life and the long-term health of communities and the environment.

• Sustainable landscapes balance the needs of people and the environment and benefit both.

Sustainable Sites Initiative Efforts

• NE35th & Siskiyou Street Filter Strips Project,Portland, Oregon.

• Street Planters - SW 12th St, Portland, Oregon.

• Bio-Retention Project, Portland, Oregon.

• Glencoe Elementary School Rain Garden, Portland, Oregon.

NE35th & Siskiyou Street Filter Strips Project, Portland, Oregon

Designer: Kevin Perry, City of Portland, Bureau of Environmental Services

NE35th & Siskiyou Street Filter Strips Project, Portland, Oregon

Designer: Kevin Perry, City of Portland, Bureau of Environmental Services

NE35th & Siskiyou Street Filter Strips Project, Portland, Oregon

Designer: Kevin Perry, City of Portland, Bureau of Environmental Services

Street Planters - SW 12th St, Portland, OR

Designer: Kevin Perry, City of Portland, Bureau of Environmental Services

Street Planters - SW 12th St, Portland, OR

Designer: Kevin Perry, City of Portland, Bureau of Environmental Services

Bio-Retention Project, Portland, Oregon

Designer: Kevin Perry, City of Portland, Bureau of Environmental Services

Bio-Retention Project, Portland, Oregon

Designer: Kevin Perry, City of Portland, Bureau of Environmental Services

Glencoe Elementary School Rain Garden, Portland, Oregon

Designer: Kevin Perry, City of Portland, Bureau of Environmental Services

Glencoe Elementary School Rain Garden, Portland, Oregon

Designer: Kevin Perry, City of Portland, Bureau of Environmental Services

Sustainable Sites: Creating Win-Win Situations

• Hydrology

• Soils

• Vegetation

• Materials

• Human Well Being

Hydrology

• Water is a limited resource that is essential to all life.

• Human-altered landscapes are often designed to treat water as a “waste product”.

• Conventional drainage systems typically deliver larger volumes of water to streams in shorter amounts of time.

• These human modifications on landscapes can affect regional and even global ecology.

Hydrology: Current Practices

• Disturbing or removing soils and vegetation can severely diminish or even eliminate the interception, evapotranspiration and infiltration capacity of the landscape.

• Conventional drainage and stormwater management systems are designed to move water offsite quickly, causing flooding, erosion, scoured stream banks, increased pollution, etc.

• Contaminated stormwater runoff from developed land is the leading cause of water quality problems and accounts for 70% of urban water pollution.

• Inefficient water use reduces the supply of drinking water and the flow in streams and lakes.

Hydrology: Win-Win Situations

• Balance your water budget

• Incorporate water infiltration into the site design

• Reuse water

• Clean and slow the flow of water to protect and enhance down stream water bodies

Soils

• Soils are essential for the production of food, timber, medicines, fibers and other raw materials.

• Healthy soils allow rainwater to penetrate, preventing excessive runoff, sedimentation, erosion and flooding.

• Soils also help clean, store and recharge ground water:– Water and air pollutants are

removed or transformed into less harmful materials in the soil.

Soils : Current Practices

• Compaction degrades soil structure and reduces infiltration rates, increasing runoff volume and flooding potential. It also reduces space for oxygen and water in the soil.

• Disturbing and removing vegetation can damage soil structure and increase erosion and sedimentation. It also releases into the atmosphere significant amounts of organic carbon previously sequestered in the soil.

• Removing topsoil destroys soil horizons and hinders reestablishment of healthy soils. It also disturbs soil structure and profile on-site. The impact is doubled when soil is harvested and imported from a second site.

• Contaminated soils can result from the use of pesticides and substances containing heavy metals. Soil pollutants may harm soil biota that provides critical nutrient cycling and decomposition services.

Soils: Win-Win Situations

• Preserve and protect healthy soils

• Improve health of degraded soils

• Reduce waste during maintenance

Vegetation

• Plants provide a livable atmosphere and moderate climate by regulating the earth’s oxygen/carbon dioxide balance and filtering pollutants from air and water.

• During photosynthesis, plants take in carbon dioxide, water and light to produce carbohydrates, a food for growth, and oxygen.

• Vegetation (along with soil biota) can convert and recycle human waste by processing, removing, transforming and storing pollutants from air and water.

Vegetation: Current Practices

• Disturbing or removing vegetation causes a site to lose valuable ecosystem services such as:– Climate regulation– Protection of soil health– Provision of habitat for wildlife– Pollinators and filtration of pollutants from water and air– Intercept and infiltrate water

• Invasive species in landscape design jeopardize native wildlife species. – 85% of the invasive woody plant species in the US were

introduced for landscape or ornamental uses– Approximately 5,000 of these plant species are estimated to have

escaped to natural ecosystems.

Vegetation: Win-Win Situations

• Protect and conserve existing vegetation

• Eliminate the use of invasive plants

• Specify plants from local growers

• Minimize the amount of time that plants are stored on-site before planting

Materials

• Materials are natural resources that have been extracted, manufactured and/or processed for human use.

• They are a necessary component of almost every project and should be considered when thinking about sustainability.

Materials: Current Practices

• Excessive material use and improper materials management cause needless waste and require more resources, production and transport. Materials commonly viewed as “waste” can often be reused or recycled to reduce the need for additional resources, as well as reducing landfill volumes.

• Selecting materials that require energy-intensive processes contributes significantly to the increasing volumes of greenhouse gas emissions. Materials that require less energy to produce or transport can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

• Materials with low reflectivity, such as asphalt paving and shingles, store heat and are slow to release it. This can increase surface temperatures by as much as 122° F. Selecting highly reflective materials can minimize the urban heat islandeffect.

Materials: Win-Win Situations

• Manage resources and materials efficiently

• Select materials for durability

• Use local materials

• Reduce the urban heat island effect

Human Well Being

• Plants and natural elements provide many environmental benefits and improve our quality of life and well being.

• Sites can use natural elements in designs that provide human benefits as well as benefits to the environment.

Human Well Being: Current Landscape Practices

• Site design sometimes ignores the human benefits of healthy, green environments and fails to provide opportunities for physical activity, restorative and aesthetic experiences and social interaction.

• In site design, natural elements are often viewed only as a way to beautify structures or the built environment. However, research indicates that vegetation plays a much more important role in human health and well-being.

Human Well Being: Win-Win Situations

• Provide spaces for physical activities

• Support on-site food production

• Provide spaces for social interaction

Sustainable Sites Initiative – Conclusions

• Sustainable land practices can support the functions of healthy systems and harness natural processes to provide environmental benefits.

• The Sustainable Sites Initiative is aimed at providing the land development and maintenance industries with the tools to move toward a more sustainable future.

• The U.S. Green Building Council, a major stakeholder in the initiative, has committed to incorporating these guidelines and standards into the future evolution of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System.

LEED: Leadership in Energy &Environmental Design

• LEED is a registered trademark of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)

• USGBC promotes design, construction, operations and maintenance of buildings which are:– low in operating costs

– environmentally responsible

– healthy places to live and work

LEED Rating Systems

• The LEED Green Building Rating System encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.

• LEED addresses the complete lifecycle of buildings.

LEED for Neighborhood Development

• LEED for Neighborhood Development is a rating system that integrates the principles of smart growth, new urbanism, and green building into the first national standard for neighborhood design.

• Currently in its pilot period, LEED-ND is a collaboration among USGBC, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

• The post-pilot version of the rating system is expected to launch in 2009.

Benefits of a LEED-ND Community

• Reduce Urban Sprawl– Locations that are closer to existing town and city centers– Areas with good transit access– Infill sites– Previously developed sites– Sites adjacent to existing development

• Encourage healthy living• Protect threatened species• Increase transportation choices and decrease

automobile dependence

LEED for Neighborhood Development, Pilot

• The LEED-ND Pilot Version Rating System lists the intent, requirements, and submittals for each prerequisite and credit.

• Unlike other LEED products that focus primarily on green building practices, LEED-ND places emphasis on the design and construction elements that bring buildings together into a neighborhood, and relate the neighborhood to its larger region and landscape.

• It is available for download at the USGBC website at www.usgbc.org

LEED-ND Pilot Projects Registered in the U.S.

205 projects are registered in 39 states and D.C.

Smart Location & Linkage

Prerequisites• Smart Location

• Proximity to Water and Wastewater Infrastructure

• Imperiled Species and Ecological Communities

• Wetland and Water Body Conservation

• Agricultural Land Conservation

• Floodplain Avoidance

SLL Prerequisite 1: Smart locationOptions 1 -5 • Infill site means: “the reuse and

repositioning of obsolete or underutilized buildings and sites. Infill development is essential to renewing neighborhoods and knitting them back together” Infill Philadelphia - an initiative of the Community Design Collaborative. To learn more about the Collaborative visit www.cdesignc.org

• Adequate Transit Service to at least 50% of dwelling units and business.

• Within ¼ mile walking distance to bus stop.

• ½ mile walking distance to urban train or rapid transit stop.

• Project near existing neighborhood shops, services and facilities.

• Need to define VMT for PR.

Ciudadela - Santurce, Puerto Rico

SLL Prerequisite 2: Proximity to Water and Wastewater Infrastructure

Options 1-2:• Need for accessible maps

of existing or proposed potable water, storm water, and sewer line facilities.

SLL Prerequisite 3: Imperiled Species and Ecological Communities

Options 1-2:• Needed maps of natural heritage site ranges-DRNA-Identify

coordinator.

SLL Prerequisite 4: Wetland andWater Body Conservation

Options 1-3:• Need maps of existing wetlands or

waterbodies- define 100 feet setback line.

SLL Prerequisite 5: Agricultural Land Conservation

Options 1-4:• Maps of soils-

define prime, unique or significant farmor forest land.

SLL Prerequisite 6: Floodplain Avoidance

Options 1-3:• Maps of 100-year

floodplain line.

Neighborhood Pattern & Design

Prerequisites• Open Community- Promote communities that are

physically connected to each other. Foster community and connectedness beyond the development- no more gates.

• Compact Development- an average density of seven or more dwelling units per acre of buildable land available for residential uses- convert to “cuerdas”.

Green Construction & Technology

Prerequisites• Construction Activity Pollution Prevention-

Reduce pollution from construction activities by controlling soil erosion, waterway sedimentation and airborne dust generation-need to compare JCA-plan CEST requirements with EPA Construction General Permit (CGP) to determine which is more stringent.

Puerto Rico Documents Clearinghouse

• Need for a Puerto Rico clearinghouse for the supporting documents of LEED for Neighborhood Development, which places emphasis on the design and construction elements that bring buildings together into a neighborhood, and relate the neighborhood to its larger region and landscape.

• LEED for Neighborhood Development serves as a label as well as an incentive for better location, design, and construction of new residential, commercial, and mixed use developments.

Puerto Rico Clearinghouse Links• Puerto Rico Interactivo - (PRI) es una herramienta de análisis

geográfico que permite localizar y evaluar características ambientales y físicas de un lugar en particular y brinda información sobre las políticas de desarrollo asociados a los terrenos en Puerto Rico.– http://gis.jp.gobierno.pr/pr/

• Example of an Integrated Heritage Conservation Plan– http://www.fws.gov/endangered/pdfs/HCP/HCPAPP8.PDF

• Nature Serve - a network of natural heritage programs which provides trusted information on rare and endangered species and threatened ecosystems.– http://www.natureserve.org/

• National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System - General Permit for Discharges from Large and Small Construction Activities– http://www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/cgp2008_proposedpermit.pdf– http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/cgp.cfm