As part of the University of Pennsylvania's "Penn Connects" campus master plan, this deteriorating site in Philadelphia, Pa., was redesigned as Shoemaker Green and awarded SITES• certification. The green space has been optimized to capture and control stormwater from the site and surrounding rooftops, provide viable native plant and animal habitats, minimize transportation of materials to and from the site, and serve as a starting point for the development of a sustainable maintenance strategy for the university at large.

Since June 2010, 26 pilot landscape projects at universities, corporate headquarters and other entities across the country have achieved SITES• certification by applying 2009's SITES Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks and meeting the requirements it set. These diverse ventures represent landscapes of various sizes, locations, types and costs.

The original guidelines and rating system were created by dozens of the country's leading sustainability experts, landscape architects, scientists, and design professionals.

Now, based on the experiences of many of the pilot projects, a refined set of guidelines and an updated rating system, SITES v2 has been finalized. This enhanced version of the 2009 SITES Rating System incorporates added recommendations from technical experts, and is ready to be published for distribution and use by landscape architects and other landscape professionals.