26 Landscape Architecture CEOs: We Will Be a Zero-Emission Profession by 2040, World Must Address Climate Change
Leading global design firm heads with collective $350 million annual revenues pledge company goals, call on governments to strengthen climate commitments
2024-09-18
ASLA 2019 Professional General Design Honor Award. Hunter's Point South Waterfront Park Phase II: A New Urban Ecology. Long Island City, NY. SWA/BALSLEY and WEISS/MANFREDI with ARUP / copyright Vecerka/ESTO, courtesy SWA/BALSLEY and WEISS/MANFREDI
Today, 26 CEOs representing the world’s largest and most influential landscape architecture firms released a public letter committing their firms to achieve the goals laid out in the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Climate Action Plan, most notably a commitment to make landscape architecture a zero-emissions profession by 2040. The firms signing onto the letter have designed many of the most-visited parks, public plazas, stadium grounds, waterfronts, and transportation corridors across the United States and around the world, representing tens of billions of dollars of public and private infrastructure.
The letter reads in part: “Because we work so closely with land and water, landscape architects are natural leaders in designing climate-resilient communities—from stormwater management to green infrastructure to sustainable transportation to biodiversity conservation. Every day, we design nature-based solutions to help build communities that are more resilient to extreme weather, more equitable for everyone, and more supportive of human health and wellness.”
The letter expresses key business commitments: “We publicly and expressly endorse, support, and commit to the goals articulated in the ASLA Climate Action Plan, which sets specific and extraordinarily ambitious goals for the profession of landscape architecture to become a zero-emission profession by 2040, including in our business operations, designed landscapes, and the materials and products used in our work.”
The businesses represented on the letter collectively do more than $350 million in revenues annually and lead or contribute to projects with more than $1 billion in construction value annually. Their work influences millions of acres in more than 50 countries every year.
“Leaders of more than two dozen top-tier firms that influence billions of dollars in infrastructure spending and millions of acres of land have just pledged to make their profession zero emissions by 2040—this is a really big deal,” said American Society of Landscape Architects CEO Torey Carter-Conneen. “These are people who have the skills and imagination to make it happen: They're already designing resilient waterfronts, parks that soak up stormwater, and urban forests that take greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere and cool our cities. Landscape architects know how to get it done. Every sector of the economy has to tackle climate resilience, and landscape architects will do their part.”
The CEOs called on governments, clients, and peers in the closing section of the letter, writing in part: “We call on our colleagues in allied disciplines to partner with us in designing and implementing solutions. We call on leaders in government at every level to prioritize resilience, emissions reductions, and human wellbeing in their policymaking. We call on our clients to be bold and curious as we design the future together.”