Association of Professional Landscape Designers on Sustainable Landscaping Practices

The Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) offers references, guides and links to help with the various aspects of sustainability landscaping:

APLD Guide to Sustainable Soils: A document that outlines the main issues landscape professionals should know about soils: from the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil and their interactions to the role of soils in sustainability.

Lawns: Guidelines for Creating Environmentally Responsible Landscapes: This publication represents the landscape design community’s desire to better assist in making more prudent and informed environmental decisions in residential landscapes. Consequences of previous decision-making now threaten not only the well being of the air, water, land, and wildlife, but of our own community as well. This material suggestion we work together to help redefine the lawn into a friendly element of our everyday landscape.

Water in the Landscape — APLD Guidelines for Designing Landscapes That Respect Water Resources: This is a summary of water management from a sustainability perspective.

Native Plants in the Landscape — APLD’s Commitment: This piece defines native plants and presents an overview of their importance in the landscape.

The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) – a set of voluntary national guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable landscape design, construction and maintenance practices.

Lawn Reform Coalition – a coalition of gardening and environmental advocates based in the United States.

U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) – a non-profit trade organization based in Washington, D.C. that promotes sustainability in how buildings are designed, built, and operated, responsible for the green building certification program known as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

Living Building Challenge – a philosophy, advocacy tool and certification program developed by the International Living Future Institute that addresses development at all scales, and comprising seven performance areas: site, water, energy, health, materials, equity and beauty.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency: Green Infrastructure – an explanation of green infrastructure and a compilation of tools, resources and case studies.