CSLA Resource Library

The goal of these guidelines is to make it easier for landscape architects to more effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions from project design and construction. Sections cover seven key design principles and 18 areas of specification. These guidelines are written for landscape architects and designers, specifiers, contractors, manufacturers, and leaders in our discipline and industry who want to cut emissions and increase carbon sequestration faster. They are thematic and condensed to provide a “CliffsNotes” overview of best practices.

Climate equity is an approach that applies an equity framework to how we experience, understand, and respond to climate change. It ensures the equitable distribution of climate protection efforts and reduces the unequal burdens created by climate change. The Practical Guide to Promoting Climate Equity in Coastal Climate Change Adaptation is a tool developed by the SHIFT Collaborative for Natural Resources Canada's Climate-Resilient Coastal Communities (CCRC) Program to support practitioners in developing more inclusive and equitable climate projects.  Craig, K., Klein, K. & Aixin, L. (2024). Practical guide to promoting climate equity in coastal climate change adaptation. 46.

This guide offers a phase-by-phase structure to decarbonize design through big ideas, strategies, and best practices. It is high-level, offering approaches that can be implemented regardless of project type, scope, and scale. The guide offers decarbonization opportunities for: Project kickoff, Schematic design, Design development, Construction documents, Construction administration, Operations and maintenance 

Landscape and Carbon is the LI and BALI’s report on carbon reduction in the UK landscape sector. It is one of only a handful of publications addressing the subject of carbon in landscape from the perspective of landscape professionals and businesses. Carbon assessment is a new area of working for the profession and is likely to be of increasing importance to those procuring, commissioning and designing landscape projects and works. This BALI and LI report calls for united action on carbon across the landscape sector. It provides eight key recommendations.

Pathfinder is a web-based application allows registered users to estimate the carbon footprint and time to carbon neutral for landscape projects based on site design and management. Learn how to improve carbon footprints while supporting resilience and equity from the Climate Positive Design Toolkit.

Pathfinder is a web-based application allows registered users to estimate the carbon footprint and time to carbon neutral for landscape projects based on site design and management. All you need to know about the metrics behind the tool, Pathfinder, how it works, further research needed, and how the Climate Positive Design Challenge was established.

Pathfinder is a web-based application allows registered users to estimate the carbon footprint and time to carbon neutral for landscape projects based on site design and management. This is your guide to: Understand how to meet the Climate Positive Design Challenge, Learn about related tools and suggested use, and Explore each step and feature in Pathfinder 3.0.

Communities worldwide were threatened by fire on an unprecedented scale this year. In this talk by expert Jonah Susskind, currently a senior researcher at SWA, increasingly urgent mitigation and protection issues will be examined, including critical feedback loops between urbanization and environmental risk in fire-prone landscapes, key disciplinary knowledge gaps among practitioners, and the introduction of applied strategies for community-scale wildfire resilience.

Case studies serve as educational tools, bolster advocacy efforts, and empower CSLA members to make the business case for adaptation measures to their clients and/or target audiences.  

This CSLA's Guide to Land Acknowledgements is intended to offer baseline information to guide members and friends of the CSLA as they embark on developing a land acknowledgement. It is not to be viewed as a standardized checklist; rather, it provides the important considerations you will need to understand as you develop a meaningful land acknowledgement.

Landscape architects impact public health through the stewardship of nature and the design of the built environment. We hold an exciting, yet challenging, opportunity to make a real difference in the health and well-being of the people in the communities in which we practice.

Landscape architects can advance climate action on multiple fronts at once. Local climate advocacy, rooted in local climate issues, can plant the seeds for broader change. Climate action starts with making an individual commitment. You‚ as a landscape architect, designer, researcher, and educator‚ have a large sphere of inf luence. You can take action through your workplace, at your children’s school, at your local town hall or city council meeting, with non-profit organizations, and at the state and federal levels. The purpose of this guide is to help landscape architecture professionals become better climate advocates individually, as well as through firms, public institutions, non-profit organizations and community groups, and ASLA’s chapters and national organization.