Led by leaders in the field of landscape architecture, ASLA is developing an updated, profession-wide Climate and Biodiversity Action Plan
ASLA is announcing the experts that will develop its new Climate and Biodiversity Action Plan for the landscape architecture community. The five-member Task Force and 33-member Advisory Group of climate and biodiversity leaders from the landscape architecture profession will guide this effort. The new plan will be released at the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture, October 10-13, 2025, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The new plan will be an update to the ASLA Climate Action Plan, which was released in 2022, and offers new goals and actions for 2026-2030. The scope of the new plan has been expanded – the climate and biodiversity crises will be treated as equal priorities, and the focus will be on actions that tackle both crises in an equitable way.
The ambitious plan seeks to transform the practice of landscape architecture by 2040 through actions taken by ASLA and its members focused on biodiversity and ecological restoration, climate mitigation and adaptation, equity, and economic development.
Meg Calkins, FASLA, Professor, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, NC State University, has been named Chair of the Task Force.
“Landscape architects know that nature-based solutions can help address both the climate and biodiversity crises while also providing multiple economic, environmental, social, and health benefits. This incredible Task Force and Advisory Group, made up of biodiversity, climate, equity, and advocacy leaders, will show us the way and guide our collective action over the next five years,” said ASLA President Kona Gray, FASLA.
“ASLA believes that landscape architects’ climate and biodiversity work provides significant benefits to communities in the U.S. and around the world. This new plan will act as a roadmap for strengthening communities’ economic well-being while also conserving and restoring ecosystems, reducing emissions, and enhancing resilience over the long-term,” said ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen, Hon. ASLA.
Task Force members include:
- Chair: Meg Calkins, FASLA, Professor, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, NC State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
- Equity Lead: Diane Jones Allen, FASLA, D. Eng., PLA, Director and Professor, Program in Landscape Architecture, University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), and Principal Landscape Architect, DesignJones, LLC, Arlington, Texas and New Orleans, Louisiana
- Biodiversity Lead: Jennifer A. Dowdell, ASLA, Practice Leader: Landscape Ecology, Planning & Design, Biohabitats, Baltimore, Maryland
- Climate Lead: Mariana Ricker, ASLA, PLA, Associate Principal, SWA Group, San Francisco, California
- Advocacy Lead: Andrew Wickham, ASLA, PLA, Project Leader, Landscape Architecture, LPA Design Studios, Sacramento, California
The goals and actions of the new plan are also shaped by a Climate and Biodiversity Action Plan Advisory Group of 33 diverse leaders, who hail from 16 U.S. states and three countries and in private, public, and non-profit practice, and academia. The Advisory Group consists of 20 women and 13 men; and three Black, four Asian and Asian American, seven Latino/a, and two Indigenous members.
Advisory Group members include:
- José Almiñana, FASLA, PLA, SITES AP, LEED AP, Principal, Andropogon Associates, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Megan Barnes, ASLA, Senior Program Manager, Landscape Architecture Foundation, Washington, D.C.
- Lisa Beyer, ASLA, PLA, Senior Manager, Nature for Urban Resilience, World Resources Institute, San Francisco, California
- Roxanne Blackwell, Hon. ASLA, Managing Director, Government Affairs, ASLA
- Jean Senechal Biggs, FASLA, Resource Development Manager, Metro, and Vice President, Professional Practice, ASLA, Portland, Oregon
- Keith Bowers, FASLA, PLA, PWS, Advocate and Practice Leader, Biohabitats, Charleston, South Carolina
- Chingwen Cheng, ASLA, PLA, Director and Professor, Stuckeman School, Penn State University and Past President, Council of Educators on Landscape Architecture (CELA), States College, Pennsylvania
- Aida Curtis, FASLA, PLA, Principal, Curtis + Rogers Design Studio and Chair, ASLA Biodiversity and Climate Action Committee, Miami, Florida
- Dr. Jennifer Egan, PhD, PG, Program Manager, Environmental Economics and Conservation Finance, Environmental Finance Center, School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
- Grant Fahlgren, Indigenous Design Lead, PFS Studio and Co-Chair, Canadian Society Landscape Architects Reconciliation Advisory Committee, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Sarah Fitzgerald, ASLA, PLA, Climate and Sustainability Lead and Associate, SWA Group, Dallas, Texas
- MaFe Gonzalez, ASLA, Landscape designer and botanist, BASE Landscape Architecture, San Francisco, California
- Kona Gray, FASLA, PLA, Principal, EDSA and President, ASLA, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Deb Guenther, FASLA, PLA, LEED AP, SITES AP, Partner, Mithun, Seattle, Washington
- Chris Hardy, ASLA PLA, CA, Senior Associate, Sasaki and Founder, Carbon Conscience, Boston, Massachusetts
- Daniella Hirschfeld, PhD, Assistant Professor, Climate Adaptation Planning, Urban Ecology, Environmental Justice, Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, Utah State University, Logan, Utah
- José de Jesús Leal, ASLA , PLA, APA, Principal and Studio Director, Native Nation Building Studio, MIG, Sacramento, California
- Mia Lehrer, FASLA, President, Studio-MLA, Los Angeles, California
- Vincent Martinez, Hon. AIA, President and COO, Architecture 2030, Seattle, Washington
- Anna McCorvey, RA, LEED AP BD+C, Senior Equitable Development Manager, 11th Street Bridge Park, and Founder and Executive Director, The River East Design Center, Washington, D.C.
- Hitesh Mehta, FASLA, FRIBA, FAAK, Assoc. AIA, President, HM Design, and Executive in Residence and Courtesy Professor at Chaplain School of Hospitality, Florida International University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Gabriel Díaz Montemayor, ASLA, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Fayetteville, Arkansas
- Chelina Odbert, Hon. ASLA, CEO and Founding Principal, Kounkuey Design Initiative, Los Angeles, California
- Dr. Sohyun Park, ASLA, PhD, Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture, Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut
- Betsy Peterson, ASLA, Director, August Design Collaborative, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
- April Phillips, FASLA, PLA, Landscape architect, artist, and past Chair, ASLA Biodiversity and Climate Action Committee, Talent, Oregon
- Catherine Seavitt, FASLA, Chair of Landscape Architecture and Meyerson Professor of Urbanism; Faculty Co-Director, McHarg Center; Department of Landscape Architecture, Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Steven Spears, FASLA, PLA, AICP, Principal, Groundwork Development and Momark Development, Austin, Texas
- Amy Syverson-Shaffer, ASLA, Sustainability Leader, Landscape Forms, Inc., Kalamazoo, Michigan
- Jerry Smith, FASLA, PLA, EDAC, LEED AP, Founding Principal, SMITH GreenHealth Consulting, Columbus, Ohio
- Julia Watson, Author, Lo—TEK Design by Radical Indigenism; Principal, Julia Watson llc; and Co-founder, Lo—TEK Institute, Brooklyn, New York
- Jonathan Williams, ASLA, PLA, Founder, Outdoor Practice, Houston, Texas
- Dr. Kongjian Yu, FASLA, PhD, Founder, Turenscape and Professor and Dean, College of Architecture and Landscape, Peking University, and Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize Winner, Beijing, China
In 2022, ASLA released its first Climate Action Plan, with a bold vision for 2040:
All landscape architecture projects will simultaneously:
- Achieve zero embodied and operational emissions and increase carbon sequestration
- Provide significant economic benefits in the form of measurable ecosystem services, health co-benefits, sequestration, and green jobs
- Address climate injustices, empower communities, and increase equitable distribution of climate investments
- Restore ecosystems and increase and protect biodiversity
For the past three years, ASLA has also been an official observer to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP) meetings. At COP29 last year, ASLA Biodiversity and Climate Action Fellow Pamela Conrad, ASLA, released WORKS with NATURE: Low Carbon Adaptation Techniques for a Changing World. It serves as a supplement to the UN National Adaptation Plan Technical Guidelines. ASLA also released a series of briefs on the economic benefits of nature-based solutions and landscape architecture, developed with the University of Maryland Environmental Finance Center.
In 2020, ASLA and its members formed a Biodiversity and Climate Action Committee, which laid the groundwork for the ASLA Climate and Biodiversity Action Plan.