ASLA Climate Action Network Recent Activities and Reports

SWA release Climate Action Plan

As the largest landscape architecture firm in the U.S.—and the first to develop a Climate Action Plan of this kind—SWA has outlined a strategy to tackle both project and operational emissions in alignment with ASLA and IPCC goals.

Today, SWA released a far-reaching Climate Action Plan (CAP) outlining strategies targeting a 50% reduction in project emissions by 2030, in alignment with goals set out by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and other AEC industry standards.
You an access this ambitious, publicly-accessible CAP here: Climate Action Plan

Economic Benefits Studies Released Today

Jared Green, Nov 12, 2024

For COP29, we released two new reports today on the economic benefits of landscape architecture and nature-based solutions:
https://dirt.asla.org/2024/11/11/landscape-architecture-solutions-to-climate-change-generate-significant-economic-benefits/
You can also find them here: https://www.asla.org/economicbenefits

This morning, an email to all members will also announce them.

Please feel free to share these with your firms, clients, partners, and communities.
This December, we’ll also release a third document — an economic benefits 101 for ASLA members.

ASLA Climate Action Network WORKS with NATURE Released

At COP29, Pamela Conrad, ASLA’s inaugural Biodiversity and Climate Action Fellow, released WORKS with NATURE: Low Carbon Adaptation Techniques for a Changing World, research she has been developing with ASLA’s support. A collaborative effort with the United Nations National Adaptation Planning team and Kotchakorn Voraakhom over this past year, supported by Climate Positive Design , American Society of Landscape Architects, International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA), Vestre and Landscape Forms.

It includes 100 low-carbon landscape-based adaptation techniques that may serve as inspiration for countries developing their National Adaptation Plans, and others around the world! As well as direct project contributions, there are many examples from the Landscape Architecture Foundation Performance Series, Harvard University Graduate School of Design Climate by Design course, ASLA, African Landscape Network (ALN) and IFLA.”
Here’s a link to the research. Please learn more about Pamela’s work at COP29. In her second year of her ASLA Fellowship next year, Pamela plans to use the guide in additional UN workshops on incorporating nature-based solutions into National Adaptation Plans.Please feel free to share with your colleagues and networks.