Seven Quiet Wins for Climate and Nature in 2025, BBC News, December 15
Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and biodiversity loss continues to accelerate but there were also wins over the past year. Renewable energy surpassed coal as the leading source of energy worldwide. Deforestation in the Amazon dropped by more than 10 percent. And the International Court of Justice issued a landmark ruling that enable countries to take legal action against other countries for damages from emissions.

‘A Shift No Country Can Ignore’: Where Global Emissions Stand, 10 Years After the Paris Climate Agreement, The Guardian, December 13
Despite the failures of the COP process, the Paris agreement has led to major, positive changes over the past decade. Investment in clean energy topped $2 trillion last year, more than double investment in fossil fuels. Electric vehicles, which were niche 10 years ago, now account for a fifth of new cars sold worldwide.

Dozens of Countries See Their Economy Grow as Emissions Fall, Yale Environment 360, December 12
A new analysis found that 43 countries, including the U.S. and most European countries, have “completely decoupled growth from [greenhouse gas] emissions over the last decade.” These countries total 46 percent of the global economy. In another 40 countries, emissions and growth are both increasing.

Federal Judge Blocks FEMA From Canceling Climate Resiliency Grants, The New York Times, December 11
A judge said the administration’s decision to cancel the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program was illegal. In their lawsuit, 22 states argued that the $4.5 billion in climate resilience projects funded through the program will prevent $150 billion in disaster damages over the next two decades.

‘Food and Fossil Fuel Production Causing $5bn of Environmental Damage an Hour,‘ The Guardian, December 9
The United Nations Environment Program released its Global Environment Outlook, a 1,100-page report created by more than 200 researchers. The report finds that environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change are impacting countries’ economies, water and food security, health, and national security. But it estimates the “benefits from climate action alone would be worth $20 trillion a year by 2070 and $100 trillion by 2100.”

Prospect Park Will Get Brooklyn’s First ‘Bluebelt’ to Protect Area from Flooding, 6 Sqft, December 4
New York City is investing $68 million to transform Frederick Law Olmsted’s Prospect Park into the borough’s first Bluebelt system, which uses nature-based solutions to reduce flooding. The plan will improve the ability of the park’s lake to manage stormwater and lead to new ponds and rain gardens.

San Francisco Is Out of Land. Amidst Rising Seas, Is it Time to Create More?, Planetizen, December 4
Two professors at Cal Poly argue that thousands of households and infrastructure like airports, highways, data centers in the San Francisco Bay Area will be underwater within decades. “By 2050, more than 75,000 homes and 20,000 acres of wetlands could be at risk.” While land reclamation won’t solve all problems, it represents “a third path between denial and retreat: one that allows the Bay Area to grow safely, equitably, and sustainably while preparing for a transformed coastline.”

The working group will lead the development of the landscape architecture field’s first site lifecycle assessment (SLCA) methodology guide and benchmarking study

ASLA has announced a new working group of its Climate & Biodiversity Committee will develop an industry-wide guide on what to measure when calculating the greenhouse gas emissions and sequestration opportunities of sites. The methodology guide for Site Lifecycle Assessments (SLCA) will cover what to measure for many types of landscape architecture projects, including those with civil engineering components.

Currently, there is no standard methodology for what to include or exclude when calculating a SLCA. Landscape architects and civil engineers have been modeling embodied carbon impacts and sequestration opportunities over the last couple years without a standard industry methodology or reporting structure. This lack of guidance and consistent collection of data means there are not currently consistent benchmarks for the embodied carbon of sites.

To align system boundaries across the industry, the methodology guide will formalize standards in scope, process, and reporting for SLCAs. The guide will also standardize how project and landscape types are categorized. This will enable landscape architects to better align data analysis and carbon sequestration estimates when benchmarking.

The methodology guide will support the creation of the first industry-wide benchmark for landscape architecture projects. This SLCA benchmarking study will enable landscape architecture and civil engineering firms to evaluate their emissions based on benchmarks and in turn set clear emission reduction targets for projects.

“This work is the critical next step in developing a Landscape Architecture 2040 Commitment Program,” said Aida Curtis, FASLA, Chair, ASLA Climate & Biodiversity Action Committee. “This group of leading landscape architects and carbon experts will help our community better understand what project emissions to measure and how to report and create a new industry-wide site carbon benchmark. We need to know what to measure – and what to measure against – so we can cut our project emissions and scale up sequestration faster.”

The working group was formed by the ASLA Climate & Biodiversity Action Committee Climate Subcommittee and includes:

• Alejandra Hinojosa, Affil. ASLA, LPA (Working Group Co-Chair)
• Meg Calkins, FASLA, North Carolina State University, and Task Force Chair, ASLA Climate & Biodiversity Action Plan (Working Group Co-Chair)
• Pamela Conrad, ASLA, Climate Positive Design
• Chris Hardy, ASLA, Sasaki and Carbon Conscience
• Mariana Ricker, ASLA, SWA and Climate Lead, ASLA Climate & Biodiversity Task Force

The group will include representatives from the Carbon Leadership Forum and the civil engineering field.

The working group will also collaborate with a practice group of landscape architecture and civil engineering firms, including representatives from the CEO Roundtable, who will serve as peer reviewers. Landscape architecture firm SWA formed the practice group.

This effort is part of Landscape Architecture 2040: Climate & Biodiversity Action Plan, which guides the landscape architecture community’s efforts from 2026 to 2030. The plan calls for all landscape architecture projects to achieve zero emissions and double carbon sequestration from business as usual by 2040. It includes action items that call for the development of a methodology guide and benchmarking study.

This effort also builds on the foundation laid by ASLA’s inaugural Biodiversity & Climate Action Fellow Pamela Conrad, ASLA. During her fellowship, Conrad developed a forward-looking Commitment Program roadmap that advances ASLA’s climate and biodiversity goals, including the development of tools like Climate Positive Design’s Pathfinder, which helps landscape architects assess greenhouse gas emissions and also now biodiversity, equity, cooling, and water conservation. Her earlier fellowship work resulted in the guide WORKS with Nature: Low-Carbon Adaptation Techniques for a Changing World, which provides global examples of nature-based solutions.

THE DIRT’s 10 best books of 2025 explore landscape from new and fascinating angles. Delve into books published this year on low-carbon materials, shade, traditional ecological knowledge, and more.

Carbon: The Book of Life
Viking, 2025

Carbon is often thought of as a pollutant. But in his latest book, environmentalist and author Paul Hawken, founder of Project Drawdown, reframes carbon as an essential building block of life. He explains Earth’s carbon flows and how they are key to regenerating the planet.

Design Against Racism: Creating Work That Transforms Communities
Princeton Architectural Press, 2025

This collection of essays curated by Omari Souza, an organizer of the State of Black Design conference, looks at how design professions have extended colonial thinking, reinforced biases, and created negative impacts on historically marginalized and underserved communities. It also offers a positive vision of design inclusion, accountability, and activism.

Details and Materials for Resilient Sites: A Climate Positive Approach
Routledge, 2025

Meg Calkins, FASLA, professor at NC State University, has written the go-to book on how designed landscapes can store more greenhouse gases than they emit. She argues that low-carbon materials are important, but so is “how we assemble them. Our site structures must be durable, flexible, repairable, and living structures.”

Is a River Alive?
W.W. Norton & Company, 2025

In his evocative new book, British nature writer Robert Macfarlane journeys through Ecuador, India, and Canada, tracing the global movement to designate rivers as living entities with legal rights. “I prefer to speak of rivers who flow,” he writes.

Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies
Basic Books, 2025

Historical patterns of land dispossession and settlement, use and management have led to gender and racial inequities and environmental degradation, argues Michael Albertus, a professor at the University of Chicago. He finds hope in contemporary land restitution, reparation, and reallocation efforts around the world.

Lo―TEK. Water. A Field Guide for TEKnology
Taschen, 2025

Landscape designer, educator, and author Julia Watson, ASLA, has followed-up on her best-selling book Lo–TEK with a new field guide rich with strategies on how to apply traditional ecological knowledge to manage water. This beautifully-designed book, full of images and informative graphics, is a must-have for any designer seeking to learn from the genius of Indigenous designers.

Marginlands: A Journey into India’s Vanishing Landscapes
Milkweed Editions, 2025

Through photography, drawing, reporting, and personal reflection, Arati Kumar-Rao, an artist and National Geographic Explorer, tells the stories of marginalized landscapes and peoples across India. To save these places, we must listen to these communities and understand their knowledge of these ecosystems.

Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource
Random House, 2025

Ancient communities in Mesopotamia, Northern Africa, and Greece once built their cities to maximize shade, argues environmental journalist Sam Bloch. But in the U.S. today it has increasingly become a privilege of the wealthy. He looks at how community leaders, planners, and landscape architects are leading efforts to cool some of the places most impacted by heat.

The Genius of Trees: How They Mastered the Elements and Shaped the World
Crown, 2025

Trees aren’t passive bystanders but have actively shaped Earth according to their own “tree-ish” agenda, argues British tree scientist Harriet Rix. Over millions of years, they have “woven the world,” transforming what was once an inhospitable, storm-ravaged, and rocky planet into a place of beauty and diversity.

Under the Campus, the Land: Anishinaabe Futuring, Colonial Non-Memory, and the Origin of the University of Michigan
University of Michigan Press, 2025

Andrew Herscher, a professor at the University of Michigan, uses in-depth research to document how the Anishinaabe people granted the land to form the university but never received the educational benefits they were promised. This excellent book provides a model for how other universities and institutions can create truer histories and begin to undo past harms to Indigenous peoples.

Buying these books through THE DIRT or ASLA’s online bookstore benefits ASLA educational programs.

In the Nordvest neighborhood of Copenhagen, Denmark, a derelict lawn in a social housing estate built in the 1950s has been transformed into a climate park designed to manage vast amounts of water. Grønningen-Bispeparken is a masterwork of multipurpose design: it protects the community from flooding while increasing biodiversity and providing social and play spaces.

According to landscape architecture firm SLA, the 5-acre park is the city’s “most radical nature-based climate adaptation project to date.” In recognition of its forward-thinking example, the park won this year’s International Rosa Barba Landscape Prize.

“Grønningen-Bispeparken … encourages us all to get to work, adapting our cities to a changing climate, with the clarity of [its] design process and a concept that is replicable, plus an outcome that is both transformative and beautiful,” said Kate Orff, FASLA, chair of the prize jury and founder of SCAPE.

SLA says the original green areas, designed by famed Danish landscape architect C.Th. Sørensen, had “fallen into unsafe disrepair with no activities, use, or play areas for local kids and residents.” Lawns were “unable to manage or contain rainwater – resulting in ‘rainwater motorways’ during thunderstorms – while also being very low on plant variation, wildlife, and biodiversity.”

Their solution was to sculpt the flat lawn into sloping green areas that collect, contain, and infiltrate the 32,000-square feet of stormwater that hits the park and surrounding streets and courtyards.

They accomplished this through an “interconnected series” of 18 bioswales that serve both a climate and social purpose. The swales steer water in the landscape and provide the framework for “playful, nature-rich, and safe meeting places for community and togetherness.”

The bioswales provide the boundaries of outdoor rooms that provide different functions. Some spaces are designed to collect water and are just for nature and wildlife. Others are designed not to accumulate water but to serve as play spaces, lawns for sports, farmer’s markets, and pocket squares. A disused underground Cold Water bunker forms the foundation of a new hill for lounging in the summer and sledding in the winter.

A path of gravel and yellow-tone pavers recycled from Copenhagen construction sites brings community members through the spaces. In places, the path is wide and in others, it “dissolves” into the landscape and is only visible by small lighting bollards.

The lawns were also replaced with a diverse range of tree and plant species, which contributes to the long-term resilience of the park and community. SLA planted 149 trees from 23 different species and more than 4 million seeds of “specially crafted seed mixtures.” The landscape architects also preserved the park’s buckthorn trees.

“Solutions that support local biodiversity are fully integrated into the nature-based climate solutions,” said Sune Rieper, partner with SLA. “During the design process, we mapped existing flora and fauna and ensured the new planting schemes and water systems reinforced them – while also creating optimal conditions for new and more resilient biological life.”

There are also cultural layers woven into the new design. In the original park, Sørensen framed views of Copenhagen’s Grundtvig’s Church. SLA preserved those views through its new tree and park elements. Also incorporated are new functional wood artworks by Kerstin Bergendal, crafted with landscape studio Efterland. The artist worked with SLA to integrate the structures into the park design, creating unique exercise and play spaces.

To lower the carbon footprint of the project, SLA reused on-site materials and surplus construction materials from the City of Copenhagen as much as possible, reducing transportation emissions. “All the soil and clay we used to shape the mounds and bioswales are from the site. We also retained several existing and quite old concrete retaining walls and used some of the concrete materials in new ways,” said Bjørn Ginman, senior lead designer at SLA.

“Granite stones from old stair treads were used as informal and rough paving in several of the bioswales. All the classic Copenhagen benches throughout the park are reused. And selected stones and bricks from the city’s many construction sites were placed and used for paving throughout the park.”

Ginman said “the emissions agenda really accelerated during the 5-plus years we were developing the project. In hindsight, we probably wouldn’t have cast the new retaining walls in concrete. Today, we would use alternative materials like rammed earth or similar. However, we did manage to reduce several planned concrete seating walls.”

Rieper hopes the park will spur on broader changes. “It is less about how the project looks and more about how it feels and how it functions. We hope the prize will encourage the entire construction industry to be even more ambitious in creating space for all life in our cities – social, biological, and cultural,” he said.

SLA explained that five days after the park opened in 2024, a major thunderstorm hit Copenhagen, flooding highways. But the rain only made Grønningen-Bispeparken “more lush and beautiful” and its surrounding buildings and infrastructure remained dry. Now imagine every community with a park like this.

“We decided to focus on the role of beauty,” explained Maria Landoni, ASLA, PLA, founder of Sur Landscape Architecture and curator of an online discussion organized by the ASLA Climate & Biodiversity Action Committee.

Beauty plays an important role — it helps people emotionally connect to landscapes. Through that connection, people are more likely to value the biodiversity that make places beautiful and functional. And then they are more likely to invest in protecting and restoring landscapes.

Uli Lorimer, director of horticulture with the Native Plant Trust, understands the beauty of wild landscapes and wants to bring that beauty to more American public spaces. He views this as a critical effort because 30-40 million hectares of native vegetation in the U.S. has been lost to development. “This is equal to all national and state parks combined,” he said. Much of that land has been covered with more than 63,000 square miles of lawn.

Despite this loss of native landscape, the U.S. is still an ecologically rich place. There are more than 20,000 native tree and plant species that provide a range of ecological functions — from habitat for pollinators to stormwater management.

To bring more of these beautiful and functional plants to more people, Lorimer called for applying “ecological horticulture.” This approach supports the genetic diversity of plants, ensuring non-uniformity, resilience, character, and climate adaptation. “Look at skunk cabbage that grows in the wild — no two flowers are the same.”

At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York City, where Lorimer once was a gardener, the team designed a garden based on the New Jersey Pinelands, a unique 1.1 million acre ecosystem designated by UNESCO as Biosphere region. The goal was to transfer some of the wild beauty of the pinelands to the garden in Brooklyn, a space surrounded by tall buildings.

“We intentionally planted small trees, which establish themselves better. We brought in a combination of ruderal and annual plant species, including milkweeds, ashers, and goldenrods” — some of which were cultivated from seeds from the pineland landscape.

Lorimer highlighted the project to raise a key point: “There is a big disconnect between beauty and diversity in the wild and what you can purchase for projects.”

Plants can be propagated from seeds or cuttings. Large-scale nurseries find taking cuttings faster and easier. Seed-grown plants result in diverse sizes and are therefore seen as riskier.

“Most plants are also cultivated to be pretty, not for ecological function. They do next to nothing for pollinators, like the 4,000 species of bees in North America, 25 percent of which are specialists that rely on particular plants.”

The Native Plant Trust, where Lorimer currently works, grows all plants from seeds. Three-fourths of seeds are collected from the wild. The Trust produces 50,000 plants from 300 species each year. Lorimer said this is just a very small portion of the total number of plants produced each year. “In some areas of the U.S., like California, there may be many native plant nursery options, but in other areas nothing.” Demanding high-quality native plants will help more people understand their value.

“For a long time, I suffered from plant blindness,” said Dawn Dyer, ASLA, PLA, principal, Studio-MLA. “It’s easy to have a lack of awareness about different types of plants. We are taught in school about animals but not plants.”

The project that helped her see is the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, where Studio-MLA designed multiple gardens to serve as spaces for students, educators, and visitors. The landscapes’ 14 garden zones offer “tangible experiences” of different Californian habitats.

The gardens were designed to be beautiful but also provide food or shelter for birds, butterflies, spiders, insects, and lizards. Dyer focused on four zones Studio-MLA designed: the transition garden, living wall, urban wilderness, and commons. Each garden has a unique plant community.

In the transition garden, silk floss trees attract birds and butterflies. The crevices of the living wall are filled with rosemary, grapes, and succulents. “Pollinators and birds love it. And people keep stealing the dudleya plants.” And in the urban wilderness zone, there are native ferns and oaks around a pond, which provides a shelter for a range of species. “When I saw a hawk there, I knew we were successful.”

Studio-MLA planted more than 600 new plants from 200 species and more than 140 new trees. The new trees helped increase the shade canopy by 50 percent. Approximately 70 percent of the plants are native. “The gardens have led to an increase in biodiversity — naturalists have made more than 11,000 observations of more than 800 species.”

The projects is designed to help others not be blind to plants. “The hawks, monarchs and bees show what the plants can do.”

Kelly D. Norris, plantsman and artist, said we have a limited vocabulary when trying to describe the beauty of landscapes. “We need to expand the language of aesthetics and create a pattern language. Designing landscapes is a process. It’s not just about the components of the design but about time; how landscapes change over time and be resilient.” Norris said the role of the designer is to “align aesthetic intent with ecology.”

Designers will benefit from spending time in nature, reading the landscape. He offered an example of a landscape that had “collision” of two gradients, which led to different soils, amounts of water, and plant communities. These kinds of collisions inspire Norris — they show that “landscapes aren’t single entities but strands of greater ecological cloth.”

Norris showed how he studies the natural spatial arrangements of plants in the wild to understand how plant density and dispersion changes over time. These quantitative analyses help him create a model for distributing plants in designed landscapes; a model that results in beauty and ecological support. “Resilient plantings emerge when aesthetic principles align with ecological processes.”

“Planting is also an act of disturbance in ecological terms. When we plant with intention, we can have a significant impact on the landscape. We can profoundly change a place.” He said “many designers oversimplify because of a fear of complexity.” But designers can lean into the complexity. They can bring density and a diversity of species together, creating visual complexity. They can create zones that are aesthetically intricate but also characterized by fineness and subtle contrasts.

COP30 Has Big Plans to Save the Rainforest. Indigenous Activists Say It’s Not Enough, Grist, November 14
The government of Brazil launched the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), which aims to provide greater financial incentives to countries to protect their tropical forests. To receive funds from the TFFF, countries will need to pass on 20 percent of what they receive to Indigenous communities. Indigenous groups argue what’s really needed is stronger land rights for Indigenous peoples and greater recognition for the key role they play in managing carbon sinks and biodiversity.

Deadly Heat Worldwide Prompts $300 million for Climate Health Research at COP30, Reuters, November 14
The number of heat-related deaths has increased more than 20 percent since the 1990s, reaching half a million deaths each year. And wildfire smoke was linked with 150,000 deaths last year. To scale up solutions to extreme heat, air pollution, and climate-sensitive infectious diseases, the Rockefeller Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and more than 30 other foundations have formed the Climate and Health Funders Coalition, which aims to accelerate new research, policies, and innovations.

Car-dominant Texas Needs More Public Transit to Meet Mobility Demands, TxDOT Report Says, Texas Tribune, November 11
Texas is developing its first statewide multi-modal transit plan, with new goals for public transportation for rural and smaller urban areas and intercity rail. In a poll commissioned by the department, 86 percent of Texans said it’s at least somewhat important to improve the state’s public transportation network. While the plan is viewed as a major step forward, there is skepticism about whether the tens of billions needed for new infrastructure will be allocated.

The Ground Beneath Our Feet Is the Next Carbon Battleground, Architect, October 30
Meg Calkins, FASLA, professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning at NC State, talks about her new book Details and Materials for Resilient Sites: A Climate Positive Approach. It provides landscape architects with strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and incorporating “resource-efficient materials” and mixes for stone, concrete, asphalt pavement, aggregates, brick, wood, metals, and plastics. “As more than 80% of the life-cycle emissions come from the production, transport, maintenance, and disposal of construction materials, we must radically shift the way we design and detail these sites and infrastructure,” Calkins said.

Biodiversity Gets Its ISO Moment: Nature Accounting Arrives, Forbes, October 20
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) released a new standard – Biodiversity for Organizations: Guidelines and Requirements – which organizations can use to measure, manage, and report on their biodiversity risks. “Until now, there has been no globally agreed standard for integrating biodiversity into strategies and operations. That lack of a common framework has led to fragmented approaches and growing confusion as nature-related risks and expectations increase,” said Noelia Garcia Nebra, head of sustainability and partnerships at ISO.