ASLA and its Climate & Biodiversity Action Committee have developed a new hub that brings together environmental product data from landscape architecture product manufacturers and material suppliers in the U.S. and worldwide.

The freely-accessible resource enables landscape architects to find products and materials with:

• Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)
• Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs)
• Eco-Label certifications (Forest Stewardship Council, etc)

It also includes industry-wide EPDs developed by associations representing manufacturers and suppliers. Industry-wide EPDs set baselines for product categories, such as bricks or pre-cast concrete.

“Products and materials make up more than 75 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from landscape architecture projects. They also have impacts on biodiversity and air and water quality. We need to look at environmental product data so we can be more aware of the impacts of what we specify and speed up our efforts to track and cut our emissions,” said Aida Curtis, FASLA, PLA, Chair, ASLA Climate & Biodiversity Action Committee.

“We applaud the product manufacturers and suppliers that have invested in providing EPDs and other product data to landscape architects. The entire landscape architecture community benefits from transparent, third-party verified product data – it enables us to achieve our collective climate and biodiversity goals faster,” said ASLA President Kona Gray, FASLA, PLA.

The resource will be updated on a rolling, monthly basis. Current ASLA Corporate Members and current and past ASLA Conference sponsors, EXPO exhibitors, and Landscape Architecture Magazine advertisers can submit their product data. The ASLA Corporate Member Committee is providing support to landscape architecture product manufacturers and suppliers that have questions on how to provide new data.

The hub also outlines other primary sources of EPDs and product data.

Landscape architects and product manufacturers can learn more about environmental product data through a resource released last year – Navigating Environmental Product Data: A Guide for Landscape Architects, Specifiers, and Industry Partners.

The guide was developed by Amy Syverson-Shaffer, ASLA, Landscape Forms and Sasha Anemone, ASLA, Salt Landscape Architects.

It outlines how EPDs and other environmental reporting can be used to understand the environmental impacts of landscape materials and products and make decisions to reduce those impacts.

A plaza in downtown Denver, Colorado was a “harsh place,” a “terrible concrete plaza,” explained Kasey Toomey, PLA, landscape architect, artist, and senior project manager at Terremoto. “We decided to create a habitat, a green space for all these creatures” — not just people.

The new 18,000-square foot plaza purposefully creates space for insects and birds but also significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions. All material, except for some Black Locust wood lumber and a few metal tables and chairs, was sourced within 100 miles. “We’re pretty fluid — we respond to local materials and product manufacturers’ expertise.”

Terremoto usually designs projects close to their home turf in southern California. With this opportunity, they wanted to see if they could apply their highly local, low-carbon design approach in another state.

Danielle VanLehe, landscape designer at Terremoto, said when they arrived in Denver they intentionally stayed in a hotel far from downtown. “We spent time hiking and immersing ourselves in the natural environment, which became our guide and helped us make decisions about plants and boulders.” Terremoto started the design process this way to ensure they were “respecting native ecosystems.”

They also partnered with Kevin Philip Williams, a local botanist and plant designer, to help them think through the native plant communities for the new plaza. The team curated a mix of plants that connect to foothill and short grass prairie ecosystems.

The designers also ran their plant selections by the local Audubon Society. They advised which plants would provide habitat for local bird species missing from downtown Denver. “We looked at plant structure, type, when they bloom, and which would provide nesting space and protective cover,” VonLehe said.

Given the tight budget of $1.3 million, there wasn’t enough for a fountain or basin for the plaza, which sits on top of the basement of the surrounding buildings. This led the team to design in boulders with natural depressions, which the team then set next to irrigation systems. The indents in the boulders catch water, providing a water source for insects and birds.

With a conceptual design in place, Terremoto took their client out on a multi-day tour of nearby native plant nurseries, material suppliers, and product manufacturers. “In all our projects, we develop intimate relationships with materials and manufacturers. That process influenced the design of the plaza.”

They selected Lyons Sandstone for boulders, pavers, and decomposed granite, because they agreed to work with them in a collaborative way. “We started a dialogue with the quarry — exploring their stone yard to find those boulders with the depressions.” This approach also demonstrates their fluid approach to design: “In our first drawings, the plaza definitely wasn’t pink, but then we found this source,” Toomey said.

They undertook a similar process to find a manufacturer that could transform old trees into sculptural benches. Terremoto selected Where Wood Meets Steel because the company could take a light touch to processing benches. “We usually only do one or two moves to an object or material — to keep it closest to its natural state.” Beyond the beauty of these natural materials, there are added benefits. Materials with little processing have much lower embodied carbon emissions and are often more economical.

The only material not from the local area is the Black Locust wood used for the decks, some benches, and other custom furniture. Toomey said it’s a strong, durable wood that is grown and processed in many parts of the U.S. It’s also a far better alternative to tropical hardwoods like Ipe. Extraction of Ipe causes immense harm to rainforest ecosystems.

Toomey thinks creating an “‘ecosystem’ with the developer, local builder and product manufacturers” is key to making authentic places that are connected to people and ecosystems. “It’s important to focus on local relationships and materials that build and deepen community.”

And it’s possible to forge these relationships in another place while minimizing travel emissions. Terremoto’s team took fewer but longer trips to Denver. “We inserted ourselves only when necessary.” To maximize efficiencies, they also participated in the construction process over five days, choreographing the placement of plants, benches, and boulders. “We were part of the team as it was being built.”

UN Ocean Summit in Nice Closes with Wave of Commitments, UN News, June 13
The conference was viewed as a major win for ocean conservation. It yielded new progress on making the High Seas Treaty international law and resulted in the Nice Ocean Action Plan, which is supported by a declaration by over 170 countries and more than 800 commitments by governments, scientists, and UN and other organizations.

Vietnam Launches First Phase of Emissions Trading Scheme, Reuters, June 11
Vietnam aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. To hit that goal, the country has required its concrete, steel, and power sectors — which account for approximately 50 percent of its emissions — to join an emissions trading scheme. Commercial buildings and cargo transportation will be added in later phases.

New Zealand Government Sued over ‘Inadequate’ Plan to Reduce Emissions, CNN, June 11
“This will be one of the first legal cases in the world challenging a government’s pursuit of a climate strategy that relies so heavily on offsetting rather than emissions reductions at source,” said one of the organizations suing the New Zealand government.

How Restored Wetlands Can Protect Europe from Russian Invasion, Yale Environment 360, June 10
The flooding of the Irpin Valley in Ukraine stopped a Russian advance. Scientists from Ukraine, Germany, and Poland are now looking at a broader European “natural defense” strategy that would include protecting and restoring thousands of miles of wetlands and forests, turning them into nature-based barriers that also provide climate and biodiversity benefits.

New Initiative Aims to Turn Vacant, Abandoned Lots into Parks, Spectrum News – NY1, May 27
The New York City government has committed a total of $80 million to purchasing abandoned lots, focusing on underserved communities that lack access to parks within a 10-minute walk. The City also plans on opening more schoolyards to the community after school, on the weekends, and during the summer.

The Indigenous worldview calls for an integrated approach — “all is related and connected.” In contrast, western academia is about putting ideas into specific categories. “How do we parse it out?,” asked Gabrielle Tayac, a historian and member of the Piscataway Nation and co-organizer of a recent symposium on Indigenous landscapes at Dumbarton Oaks.

Alice Nash, the gathering’s other co-organizer, an associate professor of history at University of Massachusetts at Amherst, explained that Indigenous knowledge is rooted in land but also expansive. “The land tells us who we are, how to sustain ourselves, and envision the future.” Grounded in the land and its history, we can “center ourselves” and then look to “regeneration and healing.”

It’s important to bring together Indigenous knowledge systems and academia, explained Thaisa Way, FASLA, director of the landscape and garden studies program at Dumbarton Oaks, because it enables us to “redesign connections” between these ways of understanding and “build community.” The symposium itself was the result of that approach: it was developed with an Indigenous Advisory Circle comprised of Indigenous knowledge-keepers and academics.

Before starting the symposium, Tayac grounded the discussion in the land of Dumbarton Oaks. The land is Anacostan (Nacotchtank) tribal lands. It’s the highest point in Washington, D.C. — a “site for visioning.” It’s defined by its unique landforms, plants, and animals. The land holds ancient trees, including a poplar. “I gave it a greeting.”

Dunbarton Oaks is near the homeland of the Piscataway, which spanned parts of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and D.C. The word Piscataway means “where the waters blend,” where life sources converge.

The names of territories matter. Emil’ Keme, a member of K’iche’ Maya Nation, and a professor at Emory University, explained how place names can either reflect Indigenous or colonial worldviews.

He has researched the Guna people, who have inhabited Panama for thousands of years. They now largely govern themselves in the Guna Yala region, which makes up the northeast coast of Panama and hundreds of small islands.

They call the Americas Abya Yala, a term more Indigenous groups across Central and South America are now using instead of Latin America or the Americas. Abya Yala better conveys the historical integration of northern and southern communities, the centuries of cultural flow and migration in both directions.

“More territory has been taken by maps than guns,” Kere said. Using the term Abya Yala, and a map showing its vast interconnection across continents, is then a way to “refuse to acknowledge colonial borders and reclaim our hemisphere,” Kere said. Breaking down colonial borders, at least through a shared worldview, can help create a new sense of solidarity among “communities facing transboundary struggles.”

Sandy Grande, who is Quechua, and a professor at the University of Connecticut, said Quechua people are guided by Sumaq Kawsay, an Indigenous worldview that brings together ideas about planetary connection, beauty, dignity, plentitude, balance, and harmony.

This worldview has been advanced by a political slogan: “Our people, our land, our people.” It conveys that land is the basis of Quechua culture, which is about reciprocal exchange. This reciprocity occurs in natural, social, and cosmological contexts.

Grande explained that in contrast American universities were developed as part of a colonial, extractive worldview and system. Her goal is to weave Indigenous values into the university, creating a “new approach not set in settler colonialism.” The University of Connecticut is exploring these ideas through a tribal educational initiative, which is resulting in more reciprocal relationships with Pequot and other tribal communities.

Preserving culture requires an intergenerational approach, explained Maria Montejo, a healer, member of the Mayan Popti’, Xajla Community of Guatemala, and program manager with the Dodem Kanonhsa’ Indigenous Education and Cultural Facility in Toronto, Canada. She reflected on her parents, elders, and spiritual leaders who helped her heal from intergenerational trauma and set her on a path of becoming a healer. And she emphasized that speaking Indigenous languages and practicing an Indigenous way of life is critical to maintaining culture and creating healing for current and future generations. “We have to practice our way of life — in life.”

Montejo took the symposium attendees through a spiritual journey, explaining her community’s understanding of how nature and people interconnect. She emphasized the holistic nature of these connections — the emotional, physical, and spiritual — and how a holistic approach to healing is then also required. “Integration is key to integrity.”

In her people’s worldview, the spirit of nature gives life to culture. “There is no utopia, but a balance of elements: air, water, fire, and earth. We are elemental beings.” Becoming self-aware means understanding how these elements affect our emotional, mental, and physical health. She has been piloting “We Are Elemental,” a K-12 educational program for Indigenous youth in Canada, which encourages connections to the land and self.

The Rosa Barba Casanovas International Landscape Architecture Prize seeks to honor the “best and most innovative practices in landscape architecture.” The 2025 prize will be awarded to a landscape that was built between 2019 to 2024. The winner will take home €15,000 (US $15,879) and a signed lithograph by Spanish artist Perico Pastor.

All projects submitted for the prize will be published in the biennial’s book catalogue and featured in an exhibition in Barcelona, Spain, and a website. And 7-11 finalists will be invited by the prize jury to go to Barcelona and lecture at the biennial symposium, which will be held November 17-21, 2025.

This year’s prize jury includes:

• Kate Orff, FASLA, PLA, founder, SCAPE
• Bruno Marques, president of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA)
• Michel Desvigne, principal director of Michel Desvigne Landscape Architects
• Henry Crothers, founding director, Landlab
• Laura Zampieri, co-founder, CZstudio

The organizers state that since the first biennial in 1999, the prize has been a “barometer” of “trends, social concerns,” and achievement in the field of landscape architecture.

Submit projects by May 30, 2025. The submission fee is €90 (US$95). Each landscape architecture firm can submit a maximum of five projects.

The 2023 prize went to Tangshan Quarry Park in Tangshan, China, designed by Z+T Studio.
The park transformed an abandoned limestone quarry into a “dynamic public space where citizens can experience the recovery process of flora and fauna.”

And the 2021 prize winner went to Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn, New York, designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates.

Explore all past winners.