Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Socio-Ecological Practice Research https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-020-00068-x REVIEW ARTICLE Landscape governance: the prospects for the SITES rating system Frederick Steiner 1 Received: 27 August 2020 / Accepted: 1 October 2020 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 Abstract Landscape is a synthesis of the cultural and natural processes of a place. As such, landscapes provide a suitable framework for governance that promotes sustainability and resilience. Any landscape holds the possibility to both improve and regen- erate the natural benefts and services of ecosystems. The Sustainable Sites Initiative was an interdisciplinary group efort which developed a rating system that advances best practices for landscape design. The system, called SITES, is grounded in the ecosystem services concept. Advantages of SITES include its credibility, replicability, and scalability. Administered by Green Business Certifcation Inc., SITES is being used by the cities of New York, Chicago, and Atlanta, the state of Rhode Island, and the US. General Services Administration to guide design decisions toward sustainable outcomes. These practical applications in landscape governance help inform socio-ecological practice and theory. Keywords Sustainable sites · SITES · Site design · Ecosystem services · Ecological design · Landscape governance 1 Toward a sustainable site‑scale landscape rating system What we build on the land profoundly afects ecological sys- tems as well as the health, safety, and welfare of human com- munities. The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SSI) was established on the understanding that landscapes are an integral part of the built environment and can be designed and maintained to avoid, mitigate, and even reverse the frequently deleterious impacts of development (Pieranunzi et al. 2017). In contrast to build- ings that typically depreciate over time, sustainable landscapes appreciate in value by continuing to provide many benefts, such as stormwater management, soil conservation, efective energy use, air and water pollution reduction, and improve- ments to human health and well-being (https://www.sustainabl esites.org/). Whether the site is a city park, a university campus, an urban plaza, a cemetery, a school yard, or a corporate ofce, landscapes can be ecologically resilient places that are better equipped to withstand and recover from episodic foods, hur- ricanes, wildfres, droughts, and other catastrophic events. How landscapes are governed contributes to this resiliency potential. De Graaf and colleagues explain: “Landscape governance relates to how various interests in the landscape are balanced in decision-making and how the rules stimulate the sustainable management of the landscape resources” (2017, p. 1). Drawing on Kozar et al. (2014), they note that “landscape governance is inherently multi- level, multi-sector, and multi-actor in nature” (De Graaf et al. 2017, p. 5). The SSI began in 2005 as an efort to create a rating sys- tem for landscapes similar to the US Green Building Coun- cil’s (USGBC) highly successful Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system for buildings. Although begun in the USA, LEED has also had broad inter- national appeal and use. At the time, in its early days, LEED paid relatively little attention to the site beyond the building envelope. Yes, LEED promoted water conservation and the use of native plants but its attention to building systems was much more efective than conventional methods. SSI was a joint efort between the Lady Bird Johnson Wildfower Center of the University of Texas at Austin, the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the US Botanic Gar- den, which is administered by the Architect of the Capitol. The efort fostered close ties with other organizations and government agencies such as USGBC, the US Environmen- tal Protection Agency, and the US General Services Admin- istrative (GSA). SSI was interdisciplinary involving land- scape architects, civil engineers, ecologists, botanists, soil scientists, and other environmental and social scientists. The * Frederick Steiner fsteiner@design.upenn.edu 1 Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA