ELA Joins SITES

The Ecological Landscaping Association is a nonprofit, member-based organization made up of professionals, businesses and pro-active community members who believe in using landscape practices that are environmentally safe and beneficial.

The Ecological Landscaping Association (ELA) joins the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES), an interdisciplinary effort by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the United States Botanic Garden, which created guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance practices.

SITES, was founded in 2006 and published its first set of guidelines and benchmarks in 2009, when they also certified 150 pilot projects.

As SITES is now reviewing feedback from those projects they are working to refine the guidelines and benchmarks, which will be released in 2013. At that time SITES will also begin accepting applications for project certification. Certification of landscape professionals is expected to follow in 2014.

With the new partnership, ELA will assist SITES in the review of the initiative's programs and documents; will continue to disseminate information on SITES through their educational events; and will inform members and constituents of opportunities to participate in the initiative's evolution and growth.

For more information about ELA please visit ecolandscaping.org. To learn more about SITES please visit sustainablesites.org.

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