Explore nature-based solutions for Earth Day
Feature image: The SITES-certified Cultural Arts Corridor: The Lower Ramble in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Image credit: Watershed Conservation Resource Center.
Celebrate the power of sustainable landscapes with SITES case studies
Feature image: The SITES Silver University of Texas at El Paso in El Paso, Texas. Image courtesy of UT El Paso.
This Earth Month, we celebrate the diversity of projects pursuing nature-based solutions through SITES.
New SITES plaque now available
Image credit: © Dale Horchner, Design Workshop.
The Sustainable SITES Initiative is pleased to offer a redesigned plaque for existing and future projects to declare their achievement. This new design was developed based on valuable community feedback. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas about what SITES projects envision for their certified locations.
Colby College Athletic Center
The Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center is a new construction project at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. The college is one of only four higher education campuses to achieve carbon neutrality in the United States as of 2022, and plans to use the Sustainable SITES Initiative as its campus landscape standard for all major projects moving forward.
The Campsite at Shield Ranch
The SITES Gold certified Campsite at Shield Ranch is a 100% off-grid facility comprised of an open-air pavilion, 11 screened sleeping shelters, a trail system, and outdoor gathering spaces. It serves as the new home for Camp El Ranchito, a scholarship-based nature overnight camp. El Ranchito started in 2007 as a primitive campsite with the mission to connect children with the natural world by providing an extraordinarily fun and inspiring nature-immersion experience.
Good SITES design leads to happy campers at Shield Ranch
Image credit: Leonid Furmansky.
The SITES Gold Campsite at Shield Ranch, located just 22 miles from downtown Austin, Texas, serves as the new home for Camp El Ranchito, a scholarship-based overnight camp. El Ranchito started in 2007 as a primitive campsite with the mission to connect children with the natural world by providing an extraordinarily fun and inspiring nature immersion experience.
Cultural Arts Corridor: The Lower Ramble
The Lower Ramble is a dynamic outdoor park located along the Razorback Greenway in Downtown Fayetteville. It is free to the public and helps connect the community to the Fay Jones Woodland and Tanglewood Branch stream. The park is linear in shape and includes hard and soft surface trails, overview lookout points, gathering spaces, bike parking, restored stream access, and lighting. It is a woodland ecosystem and is home to native trees, shrubs, perennials, a waterway, and rock outcroppings.
Peek into a SITES project: Arthington Mall Plaza
Feature image credit: Joshua Clark/University of Illinois Chicago.
Located in the heart of the city, the SITES-certified University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), is a vital part of the educational, technological and cultural fabric of the region. UIC’s Arthington Mall Plaza serves as an open common area for students, faculty, staff and visitors of the west side of campus.
Carroll A. Campbell Jr. Federal Courthouse
The LEED Gold-certified Carroll A. Campbell Jr. Federal Courthouse was designed and constructed to earn SITESv2 Silver certification as part of the U.S. General Services Administration’s adoption of SITES Silver certification for its capital construction program. It is GSA’s first courthouse project to be SITES-certified under version 2 of the rating system and the first SITES-certified project in South Carolina.