Local Firm Leads Development of Sustainable Site Standards

St. Louis area planning and landscape architecture firm SWT Design is emerging as one of the leaders in the Sustainable Sites Initiative. The firm is responsible for two of the three Missouri projects selected to pilot the program, or two of 150 projects worldwide.

"The Sustainable Sites Initiative is what LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) was 20 years ago," said Ted Spaid, co-founder of SWT Design.

The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) is a partnership that was begun by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and the United States Botanic Garden to create voluntary guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction, and maintenance practices. One hundred and fifty projects worldwide will demonstrate the application of the guidelines and test a one-star to four-star rating system for certifying compliance with the guidelines.

"The intent is to create standards for sustainable landscapes much like LEED provides standards for sustainable buildings," Spaid said.

Points in SITES will be awarded for sustainable practices with hydrology, soils, vegetation, materials, and human well-being.

The two SWT projects selected for the pilot program are the company's offices in Webster Groves and Novus International in St. Charles.

SWT's office began in an historic building on Big Bend Boulevard and expanded to a block-building next door. The site features permeable paving in the parking area, a woodland garden, a bridge-connector between the two buildings that allows storm water from the front of the site to flow under the bridge into a rain garden. The block building boasts two "green" roofs: a traditional roof garden garden featuring native plants and a roof sporting pre-planted vegetative trays.

The pilot study runs through June 2012. Results and feedback from the study will be used to revise the final rating system and reference guide by early 2013.

Spaid acknowledged that tightening storm water regulations are driving much of commercial landscape architecture. "But why build ugly concrete basins with fences," he asked?

"We want to show businesses how they can embrace site work to exemplify their business model and their brand," he said.

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